Olympic Sponsor Heng Yuan Xiang Pulls Ad After Backlash

Chinese wool producer Heng Yuan Xiang Group, a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, has pulled from Chinese TV after just one week a 60-second spot promoting their partnership after viewers "savaged the commercial in print media and online," according to Cheng & Fowler of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The ad, which debuted in February to coincide with the Chinese New Year, features a "squeaky girl's voice [that] chirps out a triplicate list of each of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, interspersed with repetitions of the company's slogan by an adult voice." The spot included the following dialogue: "Rat rat rat! Heng Yuan Xiang, official sponsor of the Olympic Games! Ox ox ox! Heng Yuan Xiang, official sponsor of the Olympic Games! Tiger tiger tiger!..." Viewers have described it as "intolerable" and the "worst spot they had ever seen," and numerous parodies have been created online. Ad execs said that other marketers "complained that consumers were changing the channel when the spot came on." Heng Yuan Xiang Media Consultant Ding Xiuwei was quoted in state-controlled news service Xinhau as saying the ad was meant "to make people laugh." Cheng & Fowler report the backlash against the spot "suggests that increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers are rejecting low-budget, low-quality marketing" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/6).