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China

Big Fat Marketing Fail For Nike In China

blogChinaSourcesMING PAOCountries

HONG KONG — Just did it. Nike has made a marketing blunder for the ages, Mingbao, a Hong Kong daily reports on Thursday, after the U.S. sports retailer launched a new model of sports shoes onto the Chinese market in the hope of cashing in on the upcoming Chinese New Year spending season. According to the newspaper, the shoes feature writing on their heels, with the Chinese character "Fa" on the left foot and "Fu" on the right.

These two Chinese ideograms do have festive connotations, "Fa" means "getting rich" and "Fu" means "happiness". The problem is that when placed standing together, the two characters become a compound term meaning "getting fat."

Chinese online commentators wasted no time in having some fun with the shoemaking giant. "After eating too much on New Year's, do we also need to advertise we have got fatter?!" asked one. according to Mingbao. Another quipped: "Nike really should find out which rival sent over an undercover agent to come up with such a genius design."

Safe to say that Nike will neither get rich nor find happiness with this model.

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MING PAO
Ming Pao is a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1959 is owned by Media Chinese International Limited.
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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War
crimea missile strikes

How Vulnerable Are The Russians In Crimea?

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on the occupied Crimean peninsula, and Russia is doing all within its power to deny how vulnerable it has become.

Photograph of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters with smoke rising above it after a Ukrainian missile strike.

September 22, 2023, Sevastopol, Crimea, Russia: Smoke rises over the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters after a Ukrainian missile strike.

TASS/ZUMA
FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine WarCountriesRussiaUkraineSourcesLIVY BEREG
Kyrylo Danylchenko

This article was updated Sept. 26, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.

Russian authorities are making a concerted effort to downplay and even deny the recent missile strikes in Russia-occupied Crimea.

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Media coverage in Russia of these events has been intentionally subdued, with top military spokesperson Igor Konashenkov offering no response to an attack on Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, or the alleged downing last week of Russian Su-24 aircraft by Ukrainian Air Defense.

The response from this and other strikes on the Crimean peninsula and surrounding waters of the Black Sea has alternated between complete silence and propagating falsehoods. One notable example of the latter was the claim that the Russian headquarters building of the Black Sea fleet that was hit Friday was empty and that the multiple explosions were mere routine training exercises.

Ukraine claimed on Monday that the attack killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. "After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Another 105 occupiers were wounded. The headquarters building cannot be restored," the Ukrainian special forces said via Telegram.

But Sokolov was seen on state television on Tuesday, just one day after Ukraine claimed he'd been killed. The Russian Defense Ministry released footage of the admiral partaking in a video conference with top admirals and chiefs, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, though there was no verification of the date of the event.

Moscow has been similarly obtuse following other reports of missiles strikes this month on Crimea. Russian authorities have declared that all missiles have been intercepted by a submarine and a structure called "VDK Minsk", which itself was severely damaged following a Ukrainian airstrike on Sept. 13. The Russians likewise dismissed reports of a fire at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, attributing it to a mundane explosion caused by swamp gas.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refrained from commenting on the military situation in Crimea and elsewhere, continuing to repeat that everything is “proceeding as planned.”

Why is Crimea such a touchy topic? And why is it proving to be so hard to defend?

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