Imagethief

This phenomenon of taking companies to task for real or perceived problems is, I think, most noticeable in two broad areas. First, it seems that computer and related electronic products are often targeted because consumers of such items are more likely to be hooked up to the Internet and reasonably savvy about how to get their point across in BBS forums. There are, for example, numerous IT forums in China and several large and widely-read online magazines covering IT and related issues. Perhaps the only other product groups to attract more online attention are food and beauty products. The second broad area of online attack is multinational corporations. This is not to say that local companies are not attacked, but newspapers seem particularly eager to follow up on stories involving well known foreign brands. KFC, McDonald’s, Siemens, Nestlé, SKII, Wal-Mart, Nike, and others have all found themselves in the mainland media in the past year or so for various transgressions, ranging from product safety, through unions and advertising, to lay offs. The main reason for targeting large and well known brands is obvious: leading companies attract attention and negative stories about them sell papers (as is the case elsewhere). But I think it’s sometimes true that foreign corporations can attract more attention than local companies for a mix of reasons, including being held to a higher standard, pockets of local resentment at MNCs (for a range of reasons), and fewer connections (political or otherwise) that would keep them off the front pages of local newspapers.