A giant, multiple screen video ad went up in Times Square last night, the latest attempt by the PRC government to build up its soft power in the US.  The reviews are in… and they're not good.  

The basic problem to me (and I'm not an advertising guy) is that the whole thing is static and aloof.  It is simply a series of portraits of well known Chinese people – that is, people who are well known in China but, for the most part, save perhaps Yao Ming and Zhang Ziyi, unfamiliar to Americans.  For most people watching the ad, it is simply a bunch of unknown people not really doing anything.  Not the best recipe for a winning ad…  As some of the critics have mentioned, it seems that the producers have not really understood their audience.  Or, alternatively, the audience is not really meant to be Americans but Chinese.  Indeed, the New York ad may play very well back in Beijing.  But that doesn't do much to advance China's image in the US…  

Anyway, one thing I noticed – because it's my day job – is the absence of Confucius or Confucian themes.  This is notable because Confucius has been so central to China's branding strategy in the US and around the world: Confucius Institutes; Confucius at the Olympics; The Confucius Peace Prize; etc. ad infinitum.  Maybe the ad men thought Times Square was not quite the right setting for Confucius (I remember it back in the 1970s, before Disney-fication!).  But what they have produced runs exactly counter to all the other Confucius-themed narratives of recent years.

Indeed, Confucius would not at all be happy with the ad.  It boasts of "Influential Chinese Wealth" and "Trend Setting Chinese Super Models" and "Thrilling Chinese Athletics."   It portrays China as modern and hip and, well, living up to the standards and expectations of America and Westernized modernization more generally.  And in doing that it is essentially leaving Confucianism behind.  Of course there are aspects – scholarship, art, bravery – that might bring a smile to the Master's face.  But the overall effect is one of accomplished modernity, wealth and beauty expressed in un-Confucian ways. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  If China wants to leave Confucius behind that is China's business.  But, of course, we hear all the time from some Chinese commentators about how China is re-embracing its Confucian past, making it relevant to the modern present.  To my mind, however, modernity overwhelms the core of Confucianism and what is left is a Chinese modernism detached from the moral rigor of Confucius and Mencius.

Instead of elevating the tawdry materialism of Times Square, as Confucius would want to do, the new ad gets right down in it.  Every day the place is filled with millions of people chasing a buck, selling something, strutting their stuff, hawking their wares.  The new ad simply suggests that a bunch of generally unfamiliar Chinese people want to get in on the fun…