Chinese marketing adjusted for 2% Muslim population

[sandwich]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246709,00.html

Chinese TV Network Bans Pig Ads During Year of Pig Celebrations Due to Muslim Sensitivity

Thursday, January 25, 2007

SHANGHAI ? Companies looking to reach China's consumer market with pig images during Year of the Pig celebrations next month will have to adjust after a national television network adopted a policy to be sensitive to the country's small Muslim population, according to published reports.

China Central Television said it would ban all verbal and visual pork references from advertisements during Lunar New Year celebrations next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. This week, the network banned a TV ad from Nestle SA featuring a smiling cartoon pig and the message, "Happy new pig year."

CCTV's ad department said the regulations are intended to avoid offending Muslims, who consider pigs unclean animals. China's 20 million Muslims comprise less than 2 percent of the population, the Journal reported.

"China is a multiethnic country," the network said in a notice. "To show respect for Islam, and upon guidance from higher levels of the government, CCTV will keep any pig images off the screen."

Several ad agencies are scrambling to adjust their ads to promotional spots featuring pigs.

"We act in line with any requests that we receive from the authorities," Francois-Xavier Perroud, a spokesperson for Nestle.

Coca-Cola Co. is planning to run a pig-free commercial featuring Pandas.

The new policy comes as a surprise move as Chinese authorities rarely advance concerns of minority groups over the broader population in the world's most populous country, the Journal reported.

Occurring in 12-year cycles, the Year of the Pig corresponds to an astrological symbol of the animal representing prosperity and good fortune. Tens of millions have been born in the Year of the Pig.

[nfinityi]

This seems fairly stupid to me. Why not just ban it in areas where Muslims are prevalant, like in the western and southwestern areas?

[Stoned_Rider]

Well nothing's going to stop us from celebrating it right here. Happy year of the PIG everyone! :)

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/pigchip.jpg

[HilbertSpace]

http://hodja.wordpress.com/files/2006/08/pig-grin.jpg

[Faust06]

OMG! AN UNCLEAN ANIMAL ON MY SCREEN! HOW FUCKING OFFENSIVE!

I'd like to know what DOESN'T offend muslims. They're something special.

[dunee]

Bizarre. I've never associated the Chinese zodiac animals with food (even if most of them ARE sometimes used as food in China). If the Muslims had a taboo against dragon meat instead, would they have banned all dragon images? The image of a pig for the zodiac does not solely equate "pork meat" in my mind.

also, I find this blurb funny because it seems such an unnecessary thing to say about China the homeplace of nearly a quarter of the earth's homo sapiens.

Tens of millions have been born in the Year of the Pig.

[Jezebel]

Bizarre. I've never associated the Chinese zodiac animals with food (even if most of them ARE sometimes used as food in China). If the Muslims had a taboo against dragon meat instead, would they have banned all dragon images? The image of a pig for the zodiac does not solely equate "pork meat" in my mind.

This is what I was thinking. I do some marketing work for a grocery store and we aren't promoting any pork products for year of the pig. As far as I know, it's only taboo for muslims to eat pigs because it's a dirty animal with unhealthy meat. It seems ridiculous that they'd be offended by the very image of a cartoon pig dancing around on a tv commercial to sell nonpork products. But, really, I'm not surprised.

Does this also mean that all nonholiday commercials for products containing pork are banned the rest of the year too?

[Meliora]

This kind of silliness makes me question mankind.

[HilbertSpace]

Muslim muscle-flexing aside, I think that this is mostly China attempting to show the world their embrace of politically correct values prior to the Olympics. China's not exactly synonymous with religious tolerance.

[M0usque]

Muslim muscle-flexing aside, I think that this is mostly China attempting to show the world their embrace of politically correct values prior to the Olympics. China's not exactly synonymous with religious tolerance.

I agree with most of the sentiment above. This story has nothing to do with Muslims in my oppinion, but more to do with the Chinese government having some unknown reason to appear to be accepting, tolerant and caring towards China's Muslim minority.

I cannot imagine that any significant number of the Chinese Muslim population actually voiced any complaint about images of pigs (other than the standard tiny percentages of whack-jobs which exist in every group in every country).

Therefore this discussion should be centred more on why the Chinese have done such an odd thing, rather than what Muslims do or don't believe about cartoon pigs.