Sent to you by Jay via Google Reader:
via Founding Bloggers by Founding Blogger on 11/8/10
This article from American Thinker, offering a critical take on the Obama Administration's failed efforts to market the US in China, is a fascinating/depressing read.
U.S. Blows an Opportunity in Shanghai
One of the most disappointing exhibits at Shanghai's Expo 2010, which ended October 31, was the U.S. pavilion — a dismal combination of ineptitude and self-loathing political correctness. As an effort to attract Chinese tourists to the U.S. or improve America's image in China, the pavilion was an epic failure, but as a symbol of Obama's America, it wasn't bad.
The Obama administration bashed bankers in one of the films presented….
The third and final film, "The Garden," was the biggest letdown of all. Granted, it was at least technically proficient, with oblong screens and a few cute effects like misting the audience when it rained on screen. However, content-wise, it was an unmitigated disaster. The film was intended to convey a message that people can work together to make their cities better, featuring a story of a young girl who succeeds in turning a small vacant lot into a garden park after overcoming many obstacles……in the film, a white-collar banker character, in an obvious dig at Wall Street, is the last and most reluctant to support the girl's efforts. It's hard to know where to begin in lambasting this bit of gratuitous capitalist-bashing.
Just a few reasons why this self inflicted America bashing is not only counter-productive, it's inept marketing in China:
…there was a huge disconnect culturally between the film's message of volunteerism and the reality of life in urban China. In mainland China, NGOs have to be approved by the CCP dictatorship or they just disappear. So advising Chinese people that they should form organizations to beautify their neighborhoods is not likely to be productive. Third, the "garden" in the film was built on a vacant lot; again, this is a scenario that simply has no relevance to urban China. With four times the U.S. population on about the same land area, China has such a huge demand for land that vacant lots barely exist; when they do, they are usually controlled by a property developer and invariably walled off and guarded full-time. Any Chinese attempting to emulate the girl in the film would, therefore, likely be run off by baton-wielding security guards.
Read the whole horrifying thing. Perhaps at the next Expo, the American booth can simply be a giant "Over-Charge" "Reset" button.
Progress!
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