Leo Burnett Apologizes For Chinese Cultural Faux Paux

It's always difficult to know what's acceptable and what's not from one culture to another. What seems harmless in one can be quite offensive in another. Danwei reports multi-national agency Leo Burnett recently apologized for an ad it created for Japanese Nippon Paint. The ad demonstrates the smoothness of Nippon Paint by showing a dragon which had slid down its post. In China, you don't mess with the dragons. They are sacred, cultural icons. Luckily, for Leo Burnett and Nippon, the ad never appeared in mass media but in the September issue of trade journal International Advertising. It appeared, oddly, as part of an article about Leo Burnett's global, multicultural creative talents.