"Il 'caso di zia Gong Li': la pubblicità sociale cinese in bilico tra finalità opposte"

OPPOSING GOALS IN CHINESE PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING : THE “CASE OF AUNTIE GONG LI” Gongyi guanggao is a somewhat new Chinese locution meaning “public service advertising”; its connotation in China differs, however, from that of public service advertising abroad. Chinese public service advertising plays a key role in the building of a “socialist spiritual civilization,” and, therefore, ads should be in complete harmony with government policies. Thus, such advertising may be described as merely an altered form of propaganda. Yet recent trends in televised public service ads show a shift away from this harmonious coexistence as the Chinese government increasingly stoops to compromises with private enterprise. This essay explores the most urgent problem and the biggest contradiction that characterizes Chinese public service advertising: its frequent commercialization. Definite clues to understanding this emerging phenomenon are found in the analysis of one such hybrid between commercial and public service ad. The so-called “Case of Auntie Gong Li” began in the summer of 2000, when a major pharmaceutical group sponsored a “social” ad that was widely broadcast on television, fraudulently linking a supposed charitable donation of the sponsor’s product with the famous actress Gong Li