To see China’s national mascot as an unkempt bumpkin might be insulting to many, but that was exactly the point of an advertisement created by CCTV.
The controversial ad depicts pandas walking around in Australia urinating in public, littering, bumping into people, and hauling overstuffed shopping bags around. Locals show their disgust at the behaviour throughout the spot. It was made at Milson’s Point in Sydney, Australia.
The commercial concludes with the words “Be a good panda. Be a good tourist,” but it’s the imagery that makes the deepest connection by showing behavior commonly associated with Chinese tourists. Even though many news outlets have reported that the commercial was pulled from the air, it’s not clear from which market is was pulled from.
Chinese tourists have a notorious reputation for causing numerous incidents while traveling. A Chinese teenager defaced a 3500 year-old artifact in Luxor, Egypt last year, while Chinese tourists were photographed washing their feet in the fountain in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
Here’s the commercial:
Photos: screencaps from Youtube
