'I love China' ads are ridiculous

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By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-28 09:35

Eyesores on Shanghai streets are common. The worst one is, "I love China."

It isn't just that it's disturbing to the eye, each time I see the slogan, I feel like screaming in rage. Don't blame me. I just don't understand why the slogan isn't offending to most of my countrymen.

Written big and bold on king-size billboards, on buses, inside elevators, the words "I love China" are an insult to the nation. Ironically, the opposite of what they're meant to suggest.

The slogan is actually a catch phrase used by the Shanghai Tobacco Company for advertising its well-known and rather pricey coffin nail - the Chung Hwa cigarettes. Chung Hwa means China, or the Chinese.

In China, flirting with such a patriotic and seemingly sacred slogan could result in severe consequences - from mass condemnation to a fine or even a jail term.

It could, but it hasn't yet.

For years, since the slogan has been used to promote the local brand of killer sticks, neither the residents nor the authorities have reacted to the flagrant aggression. Not even after two deputies to the recent municipal people's congress called the slogan improper, inimical to the anti-smoking campaign and damaging to the city's World Expo, scheduled for next year.

Instead, officials from the Chung Hwa tobacco company have shamelessly described the slogan as something of a "public service announcement".

Officials from the local industrial and commercial administration have also defended the slogan, defining it as a corporate promotion ad rather than an endorsement for tobacco.

It is surely not a public service announcement, which is mostly about health and safety. It is a public humiliation announcement.

By using the words "I love China" to promote cigarettes, the Shanghai Tobacco Company is implying that all the 1.3 billion Chinese are puffers or should be puffers. And the 350 million smokers that already exist in China are still too small a group to be proud of. Who cares about the 1 million Chinese who die every year from smoke-related diseases?

The sheer arrogance of the tobacco producer and maximum protection from relevant government authorities is understandable considering the amount of tax the company pays the government each year.

For years, governments at various levels have been addicted to using tobacco revenue to boost local GDP growth and revenue income. This year, the hefty tax, the more the better, will be especially welcome. It's one reason why anti-smoking campaigns or the ban on smoking in public places have never really been effective.

For Shanghai, which displaced 2,000 families in six months to build an International Convention Center and constructed hundreds of kilometers of the subway in a matter of a few years, implementing a smoking ban is too tough. For, it's about losing a lot of money.

After many years of half-hearted efforts, Shanghai is still trying to figure out whether its restaurants should have a non-smoking section, its hospitals should be smoke-free or if a new, but listless, regulation on banning smoking in public places should be drafted.

Hypocrisy was rife when some of the "I love China" billboards were removed for two months during the Beijing Olympics last year, but put back up soon after the Games' closing ceremony. Chances are, the same thing will happen when the city hosts the six-month World Expo next year.

If it does, Shanghai will be fooling the world with its expo slogan, "Better City Better Life."

We should stop abusing patriotic slogans to promote something as disgusting as cigarettes.

I love China, I really do. But I don't want it written beside a packet of cigarettes. Cigarettes don't make my country.

There are other reasons why we love China.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn