Buick's latest Chinese ad cops flak for sensitive wordings

Automotive brand Buick is facing some heat for its latest ad promoting its new car. The ad which was launched in China was accused of suggesting the China’s leader will not leave his office.

According to Taiwan Daily, Buick unveiled the new car in China last Wednesday and its promotional ad that reads “One more day [to go] and you will be invited to sit in the chair that you won't ever want to get down [from].”

The promotion slogan is a sensitive phrase in the region, which reportedly was made to seem as though Chinese president Xi Jinping would be taking the office forever. The ad has since been taken down from the Chinese online platforms, and the promotional event for its agency in Shanghai has reportedly been cancelled, according to the report.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Buick for a statement. 

This is not the first time a car brand has taken a seeming jab at leaders. In 2013, Ford and its ad agency had to apologise for a Ford Figo ad depicting former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi with a bunch of gagged and crying women in the trunk of his car. While the ad wasn’t supposed to see the light of the day, it emerged on an online forum. The ad also came during a time when the nation was struggling with gang rapes and on-going women right’s protests were emerging.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, German vehicle and motorcycle manufacturer BMW was accused of content plagiarism, and the brand has removed the ad from multiple platforms, according to a report from Global Times. The ad released in August 2021, featured BMW 8 series and sparked controversies on copyright protection on the internet last month.

Global Times said the ad was accused of copying the music video of English singer SOHN's Hard Liquor. It was reported that BMW's ad and the music video of Hard Liquor were similar to each other with both of them carrying black and white tones with high contrast. Filming techniques, composition, split screen and other key elements were noted to be highly similar in execution as well.

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