Brand China's face that should have been- Yang Peiyi, what a beauty!

This undated video frame grab image originally aired by China Central Television and taken from the Chinese website Sina.com, shows 7 year-old Yang Peiyi, the girl who actually sang during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Lin Miaoke lip-synched the song "Ode to the Motherland" in a performance during the opening ceremony, while Yang Peiyi's voice was actually heard. (AP Photo/CCTV).

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Chinese defend Olympic ceremony lip-synch
By ROHAN SULLIVAN

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials defended their decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old songbird as that of another girl at the Olympic opening ceremony, calling it a simple casting choice. Critics said it was a step too far in China's obsession with the perfect Olympic Games.
Beijing organizers of the games faced tough criticism Wednesday after a whistleblower revealed that the 9-year-old who performed a song during the spectacular opening ceremony was lip-synching to another girl's vocal track.

Yang Peiyi, a 7-year-old with bright eyes and a smile made crooked by the stubs of her first grown-up teeth, was heard by an audience estimated in the billions during Friday night's ceremony, singing "Ode to the Motherland."

But they never saw her face.

Organizers passed the song off as being sung by Lin Miaoke, another perky schoolgirl who donned a sparkly red dress and soared on wires above the 91,000-strong crowd at the Bird's Nest stadium.

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"The counterfeit Games: designed to look good from every angle," said a headline in The Times of London. The Daily Telegraph urged organizers of the 2012 London Games to "bring some sanity and proportion back to both the opening ceremony and the games themselves."

In Spain, one newspaper called it "Olympic karaoke." A commentator for The Age newspaper in
Australia called it "the great Beijing lip-synch switcheroo" and news on the incident was headlined "China's wrong child policy." The Romanian daily 7Plus ran this on its front page: "Hoax! Made in China."

Baltimore Sun reporter Jill Rosen said the switch was hardly the first case of lip-synching, but was "possibly the cruelest."

New York Magazine called on record executives to give Peiyi a record deal, saying "She's 7! She has buckteeth! She is adorable!"

The Chinese leadership consider the Beijing Olympics a matter of national prestige and the opening extravaganza, attended by a host of leaders including President Bush, was intended to wow the world.

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"This is pretty unfair for the girl who was not picked to perform live," said Cui Fengsi, a Beijing driver-for-hire in comments typical of several people who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, and of numerous blog posts. "This girl has a great voice and they should recognize that she deserves to be seen. She should definitely perform at the closing ceremonies."

article parsed, read in full here : http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRqqWAq6hXaag3Is87o6xMzH40CwD92HIGK00

Brand China's voice and face - Yang Peiyi

what are you willing to do for building Brand Equity?

it's paragraph 1 on page 1 on chapter 1 in marketing and advertising books we read - the Brand Equity is most sacred and should be built and defended to death at all cost, at all times.

and that seems to be what exactly they did for Brand China. and done to the extremes - to perfection. but, it is china though, so it is expected. the question is, being in marketing and advertising, are you tough enough to do the same thing for your brand?

remember that opening night at the beijing olympics? there was a girl there who gloriously sang this song. after watching her, everyone felt an international singing star was born. she wowed the 91,000 live audience in the audience and she achieved the same thing to millions of tv viewers worldwide.

well, the olympic organizers did a milli vanilli on this one. (read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli )

it turned out this girl with a most pretty face (picture here) lip-synched the song. another girl, presumably off stage, unseen by the camera was actually singing. and this where it becomes extremely bothersome and bizarre - the girl with the beautiful voice was judged by the organizers as not pretty enough to be seen on worldwide tv, thus the decision to get a pretty face to appear singing that beautiful voice.

that was done in defense and in building Brand China into perfection. are you willing to do something like that for your brand?

this was not the only major effort executed for Brand China.

the other element of the olympic opening that wowed all of us was the fireworks. before the game began, i wondered what kind of opening china will have. when i saw the fireworks show, that made a lot of sense to me. china centuries ago invented fireworks. what an excellent match that the country where fireworks originated used it extensively during their day of glory.

to what extent were they willing to go through to make sure Brand China was perfect? apparently there is no limit.

some of the fireworks you saw on tv were computer graphics! well, the fireworks were real and were launched in real life at the stadium but what the viewers saw on tv was computer work that was done over a one year period.

the official reason given was that it would have been too dangerous for the helicopters filming the sequence to show it live on tv, thus they opted for computer graphics. (reminds me of the ginebra san miguel photoshop work!)

it's a noble reason, it's also great, well perfect for Brand China.

how many more efforts at building Brand China was executed in china? i have a nagging suspicion we will find out more in the coming days. this is just the 1st week of the games.

now, think about it --- do you have what it takes to build your brand's equity the way Brand China has been doing it?


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read about the pretty face for the beautiful voice here :
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvdGdbFHvF8M_eJh8CSMEIbZ8tFAD92H0VV81


read about the computer graphics fireworks you saw on your tv here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2534499/Beijing-Olympic-2008-opening-ceremony-giant-firework-footprints-faked.html

Brand USA and Brand China

this is a most telling expression of what Brand USA is and what Brand China is. Brand USA just can't stop itself from being who it is. Brand China on the other hand will always remind everyone in the world who they are, no matter what, no matter who it needs to be told to.

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BUSH CHIDES CHINA ON HUMAN RIGHTS, CHINA TELLS HIM TO BUTT OUT

Before he left for Asia, President Bush said repeatedly that he was going to Beijing for the Olympics, not for diplomacy. "I made a decision not to politicize the Games; this is for athletics," he said at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, where he talked to U.S. troops and refueled before heading to his first stop in South Korea.

Critics, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warned that the president's presence at the Games -- he'll attend the Opening Ceremonies tomorrow -- could be misconstrued as supporting the communist regime in Beijing.

But ever since he's left, in every way possible, Bush has been making clear to China that its human rights record -- like denying U.S. speed skater Joey Cheek a visa because of his humanitarian effort to help starving Sudanese in Darfur -- is repressive.

In Thailand today, before heading to Beijing, he said:

America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights, not to antagonize China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential. We press for openness and justice, not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs. As Chinese scientist Xu Liangying has said: "Human nature is universal and needs to pursue freedom and equality."

Bush tried to soften his message by coupling it with praise for China's economic reforms and for the robust turn in U.S.-Chinese relations

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But the human rights quote was delivered loud and clear in Beijing, where the communist regime answered back quickly rejecting the president's advice.

In a statement carried on CNN, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said:

We firmly oppose any statements or deeds which use human rights, religion and other issues to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries. Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of religion in accordance with the law. These facts are well known. Regarding the Sino-U.S. differences on issues including human rights and religion, we have always insisted on dialogue and communication based on mutual equality and mutual respect, in order to enhance understanding, reduce differences and to expand consensus.

read the rest of the article here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/08/chides-china.html