Communist Party Organ Condemns Nude Pics, Shows Them Again
What do People’s Daily, the voice of China’s Communist Party, and Jalopnik have in common? More than you would imagine. Just as a for instance, both are masters of the fine art of pecksniffian outrage. Both are experts when it comes to condemning loose morals, as long as the condemnation can be illustrated with enough graphic, click-generating pictures that show said loose morals in practice. Sanctimonious click-whoring knows no boundaries, and it transcends ideologies: Gawker and CCCP, unite!
A few days ago, Peoples Daily ran an 11 high resolution picture gallery, ostensibly condemning the fact that
“in addition to taking off clothes, some commercial promotions have chosen a more disgusting way to attract public attention. From sexy dress to body painting, public’s moral bottom line has been challenged again and again.”
(Jalopnik, aware of its TL;NR clientele, would have said it with fewer words, and with at least as many pictures.)
People’s Daily’s pictures of what challenges China’s morals are old standbys. A supercar bikini carwash. A busty Toyota booth professional at a car show in Wuhan. A naked Chinese girl in a fish tank. If we would have shown the latter on TTAC, there would have been outcries of sexism and racism. No thanks, we won’t show it, we rather give the salacious traffic to People’s Daily. In any case, our high journalistic standards would forbid reporting news that is 2 years old. That’s how old the fish tank picture is.
The other pictures are likewise ancient. The disgusting Chinese bikini supercarwash had been featured in TTAC a year ago. The rare shot of a busty Chinese booth professional is similarly antique. Paparazzi dispatched to this year’s Shanghai Auto Show came back empty handed. The show was very much toned down.
That won’t dissuade People’s Daily from showing ample T&A, along with righteous indignancy.
(Disclosure: All outgoing clicks, especially those to People’s Daily, are logged and recorded, and most likely are known to the NSA before we know it.)
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Enough of this TTAC/Jalopnik mudslinging. 90% of online car-blog readers visit BOTH sites daily. Jalopnik should have just ignored Bertel's issue a few weeks ago, and Bertel shouldn't be mentioning them today. Editors of BOTH sites need to grow up.
I for one approve of pictures that combine cars and beautiful women showing some skin. Just keep the main content PG and warn us about NSFW content.