In 2004, Nike's advertising was influential.

Early warning consciousness of advertising crisis

On February 3rd, 65438, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television officially banned the broadcast of Nike's latest basketball shoe advertisement "Fear of Fighting Room". So far, an advertising dispute that caused widespread concern in China and even Asia seems to have come to an end.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the Notice on Immediately Stopping Broadcasting Terror Room Advertisements, pointing out that the advertisements violated the provisions of Article 6 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Radio and Television Advertisements, "Radio and television advertisements should safeguard national dignity and interests and respect the traditional culture of the motherland" and Article 7 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Radio and Television Advertisements. A person concerned in the public relations department of Nike subsequently said that Nike would respect and accept the decision of the relevant departments of the China government, and entrusted the public relations company to apologize to the public.

What happened to the Nike commercial?

In the advertisement named "Fear Room", basketball star James needs to have a basketball fight with five opponents on the fifth floor. Three of the scenes are against the image of China.

The first picture: James walks into the lobby on the first floor, where there is a ring and two stone lions stand beside the steps. Suddenly, an old man in the shape of China descended from the sky, wearing a robe and performing China Kung Fu, and the two men fought. Suddenly, James made a difficult move, threw the basketball from behind, knocked down the old man by the rebound of the goalpost, and then jumped up to score a layup.

The second picture: James comes to the second floor. There are dollar bills and women in China clothes everywhere. The floating girl is very similar to the flying shape in Dunhuang murals. These women slowly seduce the protagonist with ambiguous arms, trying to block his way. James smashed the backboard and the "flying elephant" was shattered.

Unit 4, entitled "Self-satisfaction", two dragons appeared next to the backboard, and the smoke from the two dragons became a monster that hindered James. James cleared all obstacles with several moves and scored a goal.

From the perspective of advertising creation, advertising shows a certain level, especially the picture is very impactful and dynamic. However, in order to be close to the audience, China element was inappropriately used as a negative image in creation, and became the object of breakthrough and transcendence, which invisibly harmed the China public with strong national cultural consciousness.

Coincidentally, before this, the advertisement of Nippon paint sliding into the dragon pattern has caused an uproar in the national public opinion, and people are very indignant at the picture of the dragon pattern sliding into the advertisement in order to highlight the smoothness of the product. The difference is that the advertisements of Nippon Paint are only published in professional advertising media as works, not spread in mass media, and their influence is not great. In the aftermath, Nike's advertisement was killed again.

First of all, Nike's advertisements vilify the image of China people. The beautiful scenery similar to "Flying Dunhuang" in the advertisement, plus flying banknotes and jewels, became the content of temptation. The beauty image here is depicted as a banshee, and the dragon revered as a totem by China people has also evolved into a monster making waves. Secondly, it belittles the ability of China people. In the first round, China, an old man in a traditional samurai costume, lost to James' skill and was knocked down by pinball, which made people feel that China and China were vulnerable to Kung Fu. Fei Mei and Long in the other two scenes were easily conquered by James' invincible skill. As a China person, I naturally feel disgusted when I see this advertisement. Originally, Nike wanted to spread its own brand through this advertisement, but it backfired and angered consumers. The whole advertising strategy has suffered a heavy failure and is facing a serious public relations crisis.

The advertisement not only caused criticism in China, but also caused an uproar in other Asian countries. Local Chinese in Singapore jointly wrote to the government to "crack down" on this advertisement of Nike. Nike's initial attitude was quite conceited, and it issued a statement saying: Nike hopes to encourage young people to face their fears and forge ahead with the help of advertisements in the "fear room".

It stands to reason that Nike became famous through this advertising event, which is known all over China. If it is famous, it is certainly worth celebrating. If it is notorious, it will be counterproductive. As a world brand, Nike's promotion in China is not very successful, but it can't reach the level of high-risk anti-hype. Maybe Nike employees will complain that the public in China is nervous, but think about it the other way around. If the flying beauty in Dunhuang is replaced by the Statue of Liberty in the United States and broadcast in the United States, do you think Americans will let you go?

There are huge psychological differences between eastern and western advertisements.

As a fashion sports product, Nike obviously hopes to improve its brand influence through brand image communication. The brand image theory, USP and positioning theory put forward by Ogilvy & Mather, the founder of Ogilvy & Mather, are the three theoretical cornerstones of western advertising. However, with the development of society and the change of marketing environment, the classical advertising theory has encountered more and more difficulties, and the era of advertising creating brand myths seems to be gone forever. In particular, some multinational companies have suffered setbacks and difficulties in these fields. Although China has been open to the outside world for more than 20 years, many multinational companies have settled in, but most companies have not been successful in promoting their global brands in China. Successful western marketing models and classic advertisements are often ineffective in China. The fundamental reason is that the people in China and westerners have different national cultural mentality, and they don't appreciate and adapt to the western advertising model.

The so-called national cultural mentality refers to the overall psychological trend of a nation's customs, historical traditions, ethics, cultural education, outlook on life, values and other modern concepts. Because the role of advertising is to make consumers buy some products, it will inevitably arouse the audience's sense of identity and become an effective symbol. However, advertisers' acceptance of advertisements in different national and cultural backgrounds shows great differences.

The civilization of the Chinese nation was born in the ancient Yellow River valley, which created the introverted collective character of China people, while China people advocate gentle and gentle implicit character and moral concepts of benevolence, charity, helping the weak and helping the poor. Western civilization was born in Greece facing the sea, and its special geographical position forced people to explore for survival, thus cultivating the psychological tendency of westerners to explore natural laws and develop natural sciences, and believing in the competitive philosophy of survival of the fittest. Different psychological tendencies lead to different advertising aesthetics, and then form different advertising environments. If advertisers don't have a clear understanding of this, they will lose.

Western advertisements like to highlight the image of their products with strong contrast and exaggeration, which will make China audiences feel that advertisements are grandstanding; Western advertisements are used to black humor, which will make oriental audiences feel that advertisements belittle others and raise themselves, so they are disgusted; Western advertisements are accustomed to fierce action scenes, and even have a strong tendency of violence and attack, which makes the audience feel immoral and thinks that advertisements are exaggerating the law of the jungle. In the west, if an advertisement can shock consumers' attention, it will often lead to a consumption boom, while in China, the audience will soon be forgotten after being shocked. No wonder some multinational advertising companies have created many award-winning advertising works after coming to China, but there are few successful cases. In China, truly successful brands, their advertisements often don't look classic, and they won't win prizes in professional activities based on western advertisements.

In addition, the cultural taboos between the East and the West are also different. Some political and cultural symbols in the West can be used for advertising, but they are more sensitive in the East. If it is not grasped well, it may lead to social unrest. The Chinese nation has a strong national consciousness, but it also has a tolerant mind. If a similar situation happens in some countries with strong religious consciousness, the consequences will be unimaginable.

There are also some different customs to pay attention to. For example, pandas are very popular in many countries in the world, but they are taboo in countries that believe in Islam; Both China and Japan regard cranes as a symbol of longevity, but the French regard them as a symbol of fools or prostitutes. Many countries think the tortoise is ugly, while the Japanese think it is a symbol of longevity and good luck.