Week 1: DL Question 2

[jon fu]

Read the “Point of View” on Page 30 of the Martin and Nakayama (2010) reading. The banned commercial can be found at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPJPe6Kti7g

What are you opinions on this commercial? 

[xhuang0802]

As some of the part mentioned in the book, many elements of the this commercial represent the China. And all of this elements is well-known all over the world. In another aspect, LeBron James, who is the professional basketball super star of NBA, also highly represent the United States which means the whole country. Thus, this commercial is easily believed by the people that this's just related to this two country. Then, unless it obviously shows the purpose of being friendly towards China, it will misunderstand the mind of the people in China. As my view, I don't think this is a good Ad for the reason of making Nike entering the market of China.

For another reason, the creator of this commercial, as a professional Ads director of a big company, is not qualified to obtain this job. He have to know that a successful commercial have a really important key. And that is the transparent of the Ads which means that the Ads won't need to explain themselves very much so that the audience can understand what is the  advertisement talking about. Based on this reason, either the director is not qualified or they did it intentionally.

For me, I think that the apology is reasonable because they were making something isolate the people between China and United States and this's not acceptable. If you ask me about Chinese, I can tell you that they will treat you better than themselves if you treat them as a true friend. That's all.

Focus

A2952 

[juliatian2854]

-          The cultural difference between U.S. and China have made their people to have different perspectives toward the commercial while the U.S. people think that the commercial is just for entertaining and a marketing purpose, but the Chinese people feel offended for the commercial.

-          During the commercial, Lebron James, a representative and hero from the U.S. was just keep defeating all the symbols of China such as Kung Fu Master, two traditional women who were wearing Chinese attire, and the dragon in which all of them are considered as the dignity of China.

-          The cultural difference between United States and China is playing an important role in this commercial, which is also a reason to cause the controversy. U.S. is considered as a country to express the identity of self-confidence, being creative, and the culture of individualism. China is considered as a country to follow tradition, showing the identity of being conservative, and the culture of collectivism.

-          However, Nike has to keep their businesses in China, so Nike has to make a concession of letting Chinese Government to stop broadcasting the commercial.

 

Julia

A2854

[wzihan.wang]

This commercial mainly contains two parts of chinese elements, the kung fu and the ladies of dressing traditional costume. Both of them are easily let people think of the chinese culture. As we all know that Lebron James is a famous and professional basketball player in NBA, who is also a public figure. As a representative of NIKE commercial, he was trying to tell people how he defeats the opponent and conquers the seducement. He represents a traditional hero of american culture. Although this is just a commercial of NIKE, which wants people well know NIKE and make some funs. For most of chinese people, this commercial is offensive to chinese culture. These two parts of chinese elements are in the form of opposite, and director tries to stand out one Amercian hero how to defeat the difficulty. From my personal perspective, this Ad is not good for NIKE to exploit the business in china, because this Ad makes people think the Amercian culture are too aggressive and also don't respect the chinese culture. Finally I want to say that chinese people are very friendly. American culture and Chinese culture have some differences, but they also are some similarities. If people could respect culture each other and learn each other that will make those kinds of commercials more friendly and acceptable.

[anvithg]

In my opinion there is nothing wrong in banning such commercials, because when someone( let it be an individual or a company) wants to enter into a new country or a region, I think its their responsibility to know the traditions and practices of people in that region. New people don't need to follow those customs but i feel that, they shouldn't be hurting the feelings of people in that region, This commercial has Lebron James advertising for Nike to promote it in China. This add shows Lebron gaming with the traditional Chinese people there by making fun of their customs and traditions.

 The concept of the add also sounds funny because, why would Lebron James ever play basketball with a Kung Fu master and traditional Chinese women/goddess? For me, when i watched the add, the whole concept sounded stupid because Lebron is such a great basketball player and if at all, he has to be challenged  another basketball pro like Kobe should challenge him. If I was the director I wouldn't have conceived a shot where Lebron plays basketball with people who never played basketball because it clearly looks like, the director was trying to make fun of the traditions and insult those people. So I would like to say that when a  person is entering into a new area, he should know the cultures and traditions and even if he doesn't abide by them, his acts should never hurt the feelings of people following those traditions and cultures.

Anvith Guduru

A2850

[zan72h]

This AD is pretty funny.

 

I think the NIKE company wants to make a difference to impress the chinese customers. But unluckly they just did wrong activities.

 

They just didnt grasp the whole chinese culture. They just knew a little bit.

 

So, for my perspectives, I think we need to spend lots of time and money to exactly know about the country's culture before you are ready to enter his market.

 

 

Annie

A2866

[Van Le]

I think when such a big company like Nike make ad, obviously, they knew clearly about the culture of China. However, different cultures also leads to different concepts about sense of humor. 

It's funny with the slogan of Nike "Just Do It", defeat all barriers and score, as open minded people. Watching the ad, we can clearly see that belong to Chinese market with the unique symbols so with some kinds of traditional people, they think it gives offense to their long-time culture.

In another aspect, this ad was showed in public that means it had been through the moderation process of some department of government. It hasn't been banned until received so many objections from viewers. Therefor, it's also the fault of media control of government. 

Christina

A 3072

[chaonan liu]

The state administration for radio, television and film posted a statement saying that Nike had violated the condition that all advertisements in China should uphold national dignity. I think this thing shows the importance of intercultural communication, they need to be understood in historical, political, religious, and economic contexts. It would be naive to assume that simply understanding the issues of intercul- tural communication would end war and intercultural conflict, but these prob- lems do underscore the need for individuals to learn more about social groups other than their own. Ultimately, people, and not countries negotiate and sign peace treaties. 

Chaonan Liu

A2800  

[zan72h]