Imagethief is aware that this blog is at risk of becoming "all Olympics, all the time". This isn't intentional, but when you write about PR, communication and China its rather hard to ignore the symbolism, conflict and dueling narratives swirling around recent events. I promise I'll write something funny soon, if for no other reason than I could use a post that isn't a troll-magnet. The last week or so has yielded some real peaches.
Here are some of the things that caught my eye over the last couple of days:
Best short description of the challenges of sponsorship
The Chicago Tribune has a long-ish and interesting business story on the challenges and goals of Olympic sponsorship. In it, Russ Meyer, chief strategist for branding company Landor, provides an observation that really sums up the challenges of managing a sponsorship successfully:
"In many ways, there are three brands interacting here: the sponsors' brands, the Olympics brand and the China brand," said [Mr. Meyer]. "It
becomes very tricky to balance the three. Outside the country, China
looks like the most vulnerable brand, but in every case, inside China,
China is the leading brand."
I am not sure "vulnerability" is the word I'd use. In fact I think it's that the China brand is ferociously strong outside China, in the sense that it is widely recognized and transmits a set of widely recognized values and attributes. The problem is that for much of the foreign public, those values and attributes are overwhelmingly negative. Thus, managing the (sponsor brand) + (Olympic brand) + (China brand) equation is fundamentally different inside and outside the country. The risk is that the internal and external solutions for the equation conflict in a way that either --or worse, both-- audiences notice.
Something else interesting in that article, on the subject of "activation":
One example [of activation]: Coke has enlisted 28 million people through an online
campaign to sign up as "ambassadors" to welcome the torch when it
arrives in mainland China on May 7. Over their cell phones, the 28
million will receive a text message advising them to do
something—exactly what, Coke will not disclose—that the company has
designed as a communal eruption of excitement throughout China over the
arrival of the Olympic flame.
Does anybody else see a potential risk here?
Jacques Rogge's plea for time for China: Evolution of an idea in print
In an interview with the Financial Times (subscription), IOC chief Jacques Rogge said that the west should take a more subtle approach to airing its grievances with China. The story itself, with the headline "IOC chief asks for more time for China," is part profile and part analysis of the current challenges surrounding the Olympics. Rogge's exhortation is at the very end of the story:
“You don’t obtain anything in China with a loud voice. That is the
big mistake of people in the west wanting to add their views. To keep
face [in Asia] is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists
will tell you that only one thing works – respectful, quiet but firm
discussion.
“Otherwise, the Chinese will close themselves. That
is what is happening today. There is a lot of protest, a lot of very
strong verbal power, and the Chinese, they close themselves.”
The FT itself seems to have spotted that this was something of a hook, because ninety minutes later they had put that quote right up front in another story apparently sparked by the China's offer of dialogue with the Dalai Lama. They also introduced the idea of "hectoring" in the lede and used the somewhat catchier headline:
Olympic chief warns west
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, the Olympics chief has warned, even as Beijing yesterday showed the first signs of bowing to international protests by saying it would hold talks with aides to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," said Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee. This was the "big mistake of people in the west".
"It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," he said, a time when the UK and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers".
In the original story the quote about the French Revolution was presented several paragraphs above the "loud voice" quote, as part of some context-setting on the kind of time-scales on which political development can unfold.
Reuters ran it almost the same way. The headline is even stronger this time:
West must curb protests on China's human rights-Rogge
The West must stop hectoring China over human rights, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said in an interview.
"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," Rogge told Saturday's Financial Times. "That is the big mistake of people in the west wanting to add their views".
"To keep face (in Asia) is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists will tell you that only one thing works -- respectful, quiet but firm discussion.
"Otherwise the Chinese will close themselves. That is what is happening today. There is a lot of protest, a lot of very strong verbal power, and the Chinese, they close themselves."
Reuters also plugs their new China blog at the bottom. Everyone's doing it, it seems.
Finally Xinhua got around to doing their own rewrite. Rogge's statement, which was not characterized in the original FT article, has become a (no doubt just) "demand":
Rogge demands end to hectoring China
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge has demanded.
"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice." This was the "big mistake of people in the west", the IOC chief said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday.
Rogge said, "It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," a time when Britain and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers". "It was only 40 years ago that we gave liberty to the colonies. Let's be a little bit more modest."
Nice to see ol' Jacques taking such a firm stand.
So much for detente
Last week's offer to conduct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, which was initially accompanied by hot rhetoric and smacked of PR, doesn't seem to have resulted in detente. From the Associated Press:
China heaped more criticism on the Dalai Lama and his followers on
Sunday, accusing them of using empty words and concepts as a facade for
their goal of independence.
The editorial attacking the Dalai
Lama in the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper was part
of an ongoing campaign to blame the exiled spiritual leader for
inciting recent anti-government protests in Tibet and neighboring
provinces in western China.
"The Dalai clique has always been
proficient in playing with words. They put forward different kinds of
concepts to dazzle people," said the opinion published in Sunday's
paper.
Well, perhaps the back-channels are more constructive?
China's protesters do the country proud
Differing points of view abound on the demeanor of the pro-China protesters who were bussed in spontaneously appeared to cheer on the Torch Relay at the last few cities. Biased Western media, including the Australian Herald Sun, New York Times, Voice of America and BBC all report scuffles, with most of them laying the blame at the feet of the Chinese protesters. The China Daily, however, paints a rather different story in a piece called, "Lads like them would do any country proud":
I could spot no Tibetan on the pro-separatist side, which comprised
a purely Japanese-speaking community. Aside from the "snow-lion" flags,
there were a lot of Japanese right-wing flags and anti-China slogans.
When a Chinese youth with a five-star red flag mark painted on his
cheek passed by the anti-Chinese protestors, several of them screamed
and pounced on the lad, covering him with fists and kicks.
My first reaction was a shout of "Tamu!" (No!) And I tried to stop
them. But they continued kicking the young man before the police came.
The Chinese young man never hit back. "Be restrained", I heard him shouting to his friends. "We must be civilized!"
He kept standing despite the beating, and was never subdued.
Proud indeed. But it will take more than this story to overcome the impressions made by some of the more negative stories and photos doing the rounds.
Doing their country proud in Korea
Apparently it's our inferiority complex
I was interested to read this op-ed in the English version of People's Daily Online (translated from this Chinese original) that gets under the hood of Western anxieties about China. Apparently it all comes down to our inferiority complex:
When Westerners are facing the
displacement of industrial enterprises overseas, outsourcing their work
opportunities and seeing "China-made" products pile up in shops or
stores in their countries and tourists from China walk in groups along
streets of Paris, London and New York, they would instinctively envy,
fear and even hate this big nation that has been developing without
being based on the Western mode.
If they say so. In fact, I'll give them two out of three. I think fear and even, regrettably, hate sometimes do figure into mainstream western attitudes about China. I give less credence to envy. The rest of the article has much rant about the "Western mode" (code for heinous liberal democracy). Skipping past all of that, I'll ask what to the PR man is the obvious question: If a major constituency envies, hates and fears you, what are you going to do to solve the problem? Hint: Blaming the media isn't a solution. Sounds like somebody needs to improve their PR. Unfortunately, the only suggestion this article makes is, "Westerners should adjust their mentality with respect to China's development."
I'm trying. Honest I am.
The Wall Street Journal's China blog
Yep, they've got one too. Good to see they're all attracting the same high quality comments as the rest of us. Example:
I don't think "decedent" was actually the word he was looking for...
And finally, it wouldn't be complete without North Korea...
Creating just the kind of imagery that the IOC must have been craving, the torch arrived in North Korea today. That's right, North Korea.
The relay kicked off under the towering Juche monument in Pyongyang. It
was, needless to say, completely trouble free. Nevertheless, the boys in blue were on hand. Just in case:
Don't miss the video of the ceremony on CNN's site. Imagethief is sincerely looking forward to the China leg of the relay when, he hopes, we'll see some actual grass-roots enthusiasm.