Week in review: Optimism and poor choices abound

News

Perusing the week's news leaves us feeling sunny, as confidence is running high among Asia's consumers (especially those in Indonesia), and the region's hottest markets can expect 10 per cent adspend growth, according to ZenithOptimedia.

Other signs of confidence this week included foreign carmakers showing off China-specific auto brands at the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show and Baskin-Robbins re-entering the Philippines even though Häagen-Dazs has pulled out.

In other news:

• Tribal is dropping "DDB" from its name
• Kinetic Worldwide launched an OOH planning tool in Malaysia
• ad2c opened an Indonesia office to serve as its Southeast Asia hub 

Analysis, opinions and 'Intelligence'

In the first in a series of reports growing out of special access to field work Starcom MediaVest has been doing in Greater China, our Jenny Chan delivered a tour de force look at fast-changing attitudes and desires among women in China.

Our reporters and contributors also dived into:

• Universal Networks' rebranding efforts
• The big goal Chris Lewis has in mind for his agency
• The challenges facing former big-agency execs now running 'indie' agencies
• The lamentable lack of brave creatives
• The use and misuse of 'Big data'
• The use and misuse of Vine

Campaign Asia-Pacific launched Intelligence, a site-within-a-site devoted to research, data and insights. The section presents content by our editors alongside downloads from selected partners, such as this Forrester report on social media in China and this ZenithOptimedia paper on paid, owned and earned media.

The Work

First, the good news. We were able to show you a variety of good stuff from Asia (or at least playing in Asia) this week:

• "Bro. Bro! Bro, bro, bro? Bro. Bro. Bro!" 
• How Coke cleverly insinuated itself into Chinese New Year in Malaysia
• A hallucinogenic, collaborative 3D project in Tokyo
• Virtual and real-worlds colliding in an Intel game
• Curious Canon shutterbugs in Singapore
• Enthusiastic Cambodians summoning Anchor Beer from the sky
• A 'Cantorock' group promoting Chiu Chow cuisine for Maxim’s MX

And finally

Now for the bad news. It must have been something in the global water this week, because we saw not one but three high-profile advertisers pulling ads that offended large constituencies.

Chevrolet had to pull an ad that, through the lyrics in its soundtrack, conveyed outdated and arguably racist stereotypes of Asian people, as we covered today.

In addition, Hyundai had to pull an ad that used a failed suicide attempt to promote an electric vehicle (below), and Mountain Dew had to pull a spot that touched racism nerves in the US using a politically incorrect goat named Felicia (also below).

One could argue about whether people should find any of these ads offensive. (The Mountain Dew ad, for example, was created buy an African-American entertainer.) But rightly or wrongly, these ads were not shining moments for the brands and agencies that approved them. The timeless question is how to make sure your own efforts don't cause similar outrage while also making sure the work is edgy enough to attract attention.

(Not surprisingly, the advertisers and agencies in question have done their best to scrub these ads from YouTube and the rest of the internets. We've embedded versions that are working as we publish and seem likely to remain in place, but apologies if the boxes below go dark at some point.)

Hyundai:

Mountain Dew:

Finally, just so we don't leave you on a low note, here's a really nice piece of work we highlighted on our Facebook page today, from Ogilvy in Chicago.

Thanks for reading Campaign Asia-Pacific. Have a great weekend.