Why did the Ford China advertisement mistake the Year of the Ox for the Year of the Horse?

On the morning of January 28, Ford China’s official Weibo posted a blog post with the advertising copy of “2021 China·Year of the Horse”. The comment area instantly turned into a netizens’ burden-shaking contest. Some netizens Said: "The Year of the Ox and the Year of the Horse have not yet been understood, and they are here to make money from the people..." "In ancient times, Zhao Gao referred to deer as horses, but now Ford does not distinguish between cows and horses."

In addition to jokes, there are also voices of doubt about this overturn. Some netizens suggested that this may be Ford China's marketing routine. As of press time, this Weibo has been forwarded 1,111 times, had 1,890 comments, and had 11,000 likes, while most other Weibo posts in this account only have a few comments.

Extended information

Foreign brands often overturn in China:

In 2018, the Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana promoted its upcoming fashion show in Shanghai During the warm-up, three promotional videos titled "Getting Up with Chopsticks to Eat" released through Sina Weibo and overseas accounts attracted attention. The advertisement was widely considered to be insulting to China. Subsequently, the brand's designer's dialogue with netizens on INS confirmed the name of "insulting China" and became the trigger point for online debate to turn into a crisis of public opinion.

More recently, luxury goods have begun to redefine "Chinese aesthetics." On the Chinese Valentine's Day in 2020, Balenciaga launched a Chinese Valentine's Day limited product. Since it is targeted at the Chinese Valentine's Day, it means it is definitely targeting the Chinese market, and various Chinese elements are definitely indispensable in the products and promotions.

But this Balenciaga bag is really out of the ordinary. This handbag priced at 13,900 yuan has Chinese characters such as "I love him" and "I love you" written directly on it. The color matching and advertising videos are extremely earthy and gaudy, which can almost make people travel back to the QQ show era in one second.

Similar confusing operations are not uncommon. Lv once launched a satchel similar to a woven bag, which can be called the "first choice for working people", but it only costs 25,000 yuan.