Soft is the new hard – Govt uses celeb film ad to boost China’s image

China presented itself through a 15-minute video that showed the nation is well on its way to ushering in an era of prosperity. But more than anything else, many believe real soft power lies in the well being of a country’s culture and people.

China has hired a New York advertising agency to create promotional commercials starring celebrities such as basketball star Yao Ming and pianist Lang Lang in a bid to boost its image abroad.

The State Council Information Office said it commissioned an “internationally renowned advertising company” to shoot two commercials – a 30-second TV spot and an extended 15-minute film – for its embassies.

“The film is aimed at boosting and raising China’s image as prosperous, developing, democratic, progressive,” it said in a statement.

The campaign comes after a 28-country poll commissioned by the BBC last year showed that only 39 percent of respondents had a positive view of China, China Daily reported.

China’s fall in global opinion was partly due to the unrest that erupted in Tibet in 2008, the newspaper said.

The Shanghai office of Lintas, one of the world’s oldest ad agencies founded in 1899, confirmed it had been awarded the campaign. In China, the firm is known for its Chinese-language ads for Audi and China Mobile.

“It will be difficult compared with ads for a particular product,” Wang Lijun, the assistant to the company’s president, told AFP.

“There is no ad that could be bigger than a national publicity film. It will be a breakthrough for our business.”

The advertisements will mark a departure from previous state-produced propaganda spots, such as those connected with the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and this year’s World Expo in Shanghai, she said.

“In the past, national publicity films would cover very broad issues. They were based on China’s overall development. But our angle is more human-oriented,” Wang said.

The descriptions of the campaign in state media say it will involve a similar cast of celebrities as in the Olympics and Expo campaigns, such as Yao, who have become modern stand-ins for communist role models of the past.

The campaign will feature some new capitalist additions, including Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-shing and Internet entrepreneur and 163.com founder Ding Lei, according to Xinhua.

Work on the ads has begun and they are expected to debut around October 1, China’s national holiday, reports said.

(Agencies)