Posted on 12/06/2004 12:32:36 PM PST by BenLurkin
BEIJING (AP) - China has banned a Nike television commercial showing U.S. basketball star LeBron James in a battle with an animated cartoon kung fu master, saying the ad insults Chinese national dignity. The commercial, titled "Chamber of Fear," was broadcast on local Chinese stations and on state television's national sports channel before being pulled last month. It shows James, the Cleveland Cavaliers' reigning NBA rookie of the year, in a video game-style setting defeating the kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire and a pair of dragons, considered a sacred symbol in traditional Chinese culture.
The advertisement "violates regulations that mandate that all advertisements in China should uphold national dignity and interest and respect the motherland's culture," the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television said on a statement posted Monday on its Web site.
"It also goes against rules that require ads not to contain content that blasphemes national practices and cultures."
The statement added: "The ad has received an indignant response from Chinese viewers."
It did not say why the advertisement was considered offensive. But communist officials are sensitive about the use of Chinese cultural symbols by Westerners, and might have been especially angered that the Nike advertisement showed the foreigner winning the fight.
Maurice Zhou, a spokesman in Shanghai for Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc. said the company had no response except to say that it "respected the government's decision."
"We respect and follow the Chinese government's laws and regulations," Zhou said. He said he could not elaborate.
The Chinese television regulator tightened controls over programming in May by prohibiting the use of English words and imported programs that promote "Western ideology and politics."
The Nike advertisement is part of fast-growing foreign efforts to cash in on the huge popularity of basketball in China and the celebrity of James and other NBA players.
Nike based the ads for the 19-year-old James' Air Zoom LeBron II sneakers on films featuring martial arts icon Bruce Lee. James, who is a fan of Lee's work, said he was sorry that some found the ads offensive.
"It was never intended to hurt anybody or any culture or anything like that" James said following practice in Cleveland on Monday. "We put the ads together basically for kids."
James signed a seven-year, $90 million endorsement deal with Nike shortly before turning pro.
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Associated Press sports writer Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.
AP-ES-12-06-04 1518EST
Nike is an overgrown, stupid, arrogant, pig corporation with no cultural knowledge or sensitivity including even in its home country. What have we Americans become if we are defending this kind of garbage? Thank god the Chinese government has more sense (at least in this case) than our own.
LOL!
You are joking, right?
Me Chinese, me play joke...
The Chinese are merely protecting their culture from the sewage of American advertising (the preferred form of brainwashing in the U.S.A.) how can they be blamed for that?
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