New Chinese Ad Campaign in Times Square: Spectacular Price, Dubious Impact (Video)

New York’s Times Square has been host to a 60-second film about China since Jan. 17, meant to coincide with Chairman Hu Jintao’s arrival to the U.S.

Video screens (R) in Times Square show scenes from the documentary 'Experience China' on January 24, in New York City. The trifle did not come cheap part of a multi-billion dollar scheme to renovate the public image of communist China. Phoebe Zheng/The Epoch Times

Online Photo Submission Counters Chinese Regime’s Image Push (NTD Television)

New York’s Times Square has been host to a 60-second film about China since Jan. 17, meant to coincide with Chairman Hu Jintao’s arrival to the U.S. The trifle did not come cheap—it’s part of a multi-billion dollar scheme to renovate the public image of communist China—nor, it appears, did it have the desired effect.

Produced by the Information Office of the State Council of China, also known as the Office of Foreign Propaganda, the film features basketball player Yao Ming and other Chinese celebrities. They stand and smile at the camera, while emotive music throbs in the background. The screen flashes and other celebrities appear. The camera zooms in, then out. Red is the theme color.

The film has an ambitious schedule: It will be played in Times Square 15 times per hour, from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. the following morning—a total of 8,400 times—over the next four weeks. A 30-second version of the film began airing on CNN several days ago, and will also run for 4 weeks.

To observers, the two things that stand out are the momentous cost of the program and its disappointing reception.

Apple Daily reported on Jan. 14 that based on the standard pricing of some well-known U.S. television stations, some mainland advertisement industry insiders believe the price tag could exceed US$10 million a month. Ultimately, the Daily says, the money is expected to come from mainland tax payers.

In 2009 it was reported that the budget for the external propaganda campaign—which was to include a battery of state-run media products, including potential buyouts, Confucius Institutes, and advertising campaigns like this one—was 45 billion yuan (US$6.8 billion).

Response so far has been unenthusiastic—unusually, even in parts of the official media. On the evening of Jan. 23 in China the state broadcaster, CCTV, presented a few vox pop interviews with New Yorkers. One man pointed out the bright colors, before saying: “I didn’t really know why it was there.” Another was more ambivalent: “If I had put the video together I’d love a little bit more specifics about who those people were.”

Online commentators have been more boisterous.

Twitter habitués were the first to start picking holes: there were three American citizens among the Chinese faces (Phoenix Satellite TV anchor Chen Luyu, composer Tan Dun and Kung Fu star Zhen Zidan), at least three other American permanent residents (volleyball star Lang Ping, basketball player Yao Ming and actress Zhang Ziyi), and a congeries of Hong Kong citizens (pianist Lang Lang, diving queen Guo Jingjing, and Asia’s richest man Li Jiacheng, whose two sons are Canadian citizens).