My stab at analyzing a Shanghai GM ad…
An ad for Shanghai General Motors.
The site I got this said “we didn’t quite get this either,” so I’ll give a stab at it.
The aesthetic style of the backdrop reminded me of something I saw in a China Esquire a while back, and is, I assume, some sort of abstractly cool & hip scene. As for the many men-in-tights, I can only assume the idea was to have the throng of men symbolize monolithic and grand power. I posit, because you still regularly see groups of soldiers singing trumpet-blaring anthems on TV there, that the image is not as silly as it seems to someone like me.
Is it an effective ad? I’d give them thumbs up for associating the brand with sheer macho-power (it is a car ad after all), but also a thumbs down for using such tactless and old-fashioned imagery.
Growing pains in the advertising world of China.
Via Provokat.
Chances are ignorant people working in that particular ad agency does not have a clue that these subversive imagery seems to implies American cars are build by Chinese slaves.