"Cadillac could turn to a Chinese partner, like Xu Zheng, director and star of last year's mega-hit film Lost in Thailand. A risk taker, a self made superstar, Xu would be a perfect, fresh face for Cadillac in China."

brandchannel said that more than two months ago after Cadillac rolled out a new China campaign with Brad Pitt as its face. Well, over the weekend, Cadillac opened its showing at the Shanghai Auto Show and Brad Pitt was not there for it. But Xu Zheng was.

At an event on April 20 to kick off its XTS display at the Shanghai Auto Show, Cadillac welcomed special new "honorary owner" Xu Zheng. In a statement on Cadillac's China site, the brand connected itself to Xu through shared innovation, calling the actor-director "the most innovative power in China's film industry" and a "good example" of the shared values of Cadillac. Caddy's Weibo account was quick to whip up a Cadillac-branded image of Xu.Continue reading...

Mistresses and mismanagement rumors are mixing to make what was supposed to be Red Cross China's rebound opportunity a undeniable PR disaster. Empty donation boxes and suggestions that the organization is holding back aid until cameras arrive are frothing up to destroy the Red Cross brand in China, possibly forever.

The emotional damage caused by the recent earthquake that destroyed the town of Ya'an in China's Sichuan Province, killing nearly 200 and injuring thousands, is compounded by the memory of the devastating quake that hit the area in 2008. But unlike for Red Cross organizations elsewhere that thrive on reputations built up from past disaster responses, Red Cross China would rather not revisit the past. 

The Red Cross has been in China since 1904, but after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Red Cross Society of China became a pseudo-governmental aid organization operating more or less on the Party's behalf. During the 1990s, the the grip on the Red Cross was loosened but the charity still operates in tandem with the CPC.Continue reading...

Best in Shanghai Auto Show: Hebei Zhongxing's "Libyan Model" pickup truck, as used by rebels flic.kr/p/eczWLZ

— Pete Sweeney (@petesweeneypro) April 22, 2013

The Shanghai Auto Show is well on its way, with exciting announcements and reveals rolling in, but already it's hard to imagine any attendee out-crazying China's Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Co. Ltd or "ZX Auto."

For starters, the automaker presented a "Libyan Model" of its Grand Tiger truck, complete with rear heavy weapons mount, Arabic stenciling and an accompanying photo gallery showing the model in action against Muammar Gaddafi. That was just the beginning.

A Taiwan-mainland joint venture, ZX Auto has manufactured SUVs and light trucks for the last decade, largely aiming its 100,00-plus-a-year output at the export market. While the brand has sought entry to developed nations, ZX's customers have largely been developing economies in South America, Africa and the Middle East. In 2011, several thousand ZX trucks found their way into the hands of the Libyan rebels who outfitted them with all manners of combat equipment from rocket launchers to heavy machine guns.Continue reading...

Above: The evil geniuses at Taiwan's NMA have produced an online Kim Jong-un-inspired game Best Korea Smackdown. The animation gang has also produced what is maybe its most subversive ever little video about American-Chinese relations with its "Iron Man 3" commentary.

China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week: BMW's China brand... Spotify's in Asia... Ginseng... Iron Man 3 "chinky eyes"... Online retail... HTC's branded disaster... Xiaomi denies Jobs copy... Hertz buys to rent... Alibaba phones... Apple porn... Burberry and YSL... WeChat... "cat models"... and more.Continue reading...

"I cried three times through the entire movie and when Allison finally 'sees' Frank in the mirror, I completely lost it!… I want to go to Seattle, and then to New York!"

That reaction of a Weibo user to seeing the new blockbuster Chinese rom-com Finding Mr. Right is not uncommon. It's the kind of reaction that led Chinese tourism site tuniu.com to find in a recent survey that inquiries about Seattle by Chinese tourists jumped 120 percent in the last week of March, when the film debuted.

Seattle isn't letting the opportunity go to waste either, with its China-side marketing team leveraging the film's huge popularity to drive interest from a group that has become the world's most lucrative tourism demographic. A demographic that is increasingly taking its cues from popular movies, but only those that can emotionally connect.Continue reading...

"A friendly reminder: Kyochon Restaurant's chicken is all supplied by the Tyson Company of America. All chicken products pass strict inspection and quarantine and quality controls. All chicken products are cooked above 174° C for more than 15-18 minutes and are freshly prepared. So, everyone has nothing to worry about."

So read the second of two Weibo messages posted Sunday about H7N9 from the South Korean fried chicken chain Kyochon, the first of which asked and answered the question, "Recently, is it true one shouldn't eat chicken?" 

Meanwhile, on Tyson's Weibo account, the chicken supplier similarly asked, "Recently H7N9 avian flu has everyone running scared, should poultry and livestock meat be avoided?" Then there's KFC. Poor, poor KFC.Continue reading...

Above, Hitchcock H7N9 bird flu poster featuring Shanghai's skyline, via Weibo.

China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week:  What's haunting Weibo?... Chicken woes for KFC... North Korean beer... New Zealand product placement... Audi's new branded film... Car plates... Skinny Uniqlo goes bigger... Inflation... Diaosi Mike Sui... Fan Bingbing for booze... Disneyland... Jordan gets countersued... Chinese spending in Europe... Former Google China head picks a fight with a 13-year-old... and more.Continue reading...

Oreo has made an unlikely pairing for it's latest China campaign, and we're not talking about green tea Oreos or the host of other local variations (ice-cream flavor, anyone?) introduced by the Nabisco division of Kraft-now-Mondelez.

It's an irony of history that Oreo's new China spokesman, film director Feng Xiaogang, was last found at the helm of Back to 1942 (一九四二), last year's three-hour, brutal epic about the Henan family that killed at least three million people.

But then again, Feng Xiaogang's career is full of little ironies. He's one of China's most popular directors of the last decade and yet almost nobody has heard of him in Hollywood. For Oreo, a western brand that has localized for the China market better than almost anyone, it makes him a perfect choice. Oreo's localization strategies like cucumber flavors and square shapes have won it press accolades and, more importantly, leagues of happy customers.Continue reading...