The big news today is the Chinese media and blogosphere's reaction to a German-made t-shirt with an offensive tag line.
A t-shirt from Germany with the words “F-U-C-K You China” and “Manufactured in Europe” printed on the front has caused a furore in the mainland press today (see Chinese-language story here
, and Baidu results here). Online media sites (including the People’s Daily) have picked up the Philipp Plein story (despite it being around for a while), with an explanation from the company that the design is meant to represent f.u.c.k.u.china, which stands for “the fascinating & urban collection: kiss you China ”. You can read the full letter in English here, and see how crazy it’s all becoming at sites like this (where a survey on whether readers believe the explanation is not going Philipp Plein’s way). The shirts were a limited-edition item and have since been withdrawn from the market.
Source: CSR Asia - Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia » F-U-C-K You China
Interestingly, a blog posting here shows a supposed response from Philip Plein Inernational AG that claims the letters "f.u.c.k.u.china" actually stand for "fascinating & urban collection: kiss you China".
If it were true it would be another example of unscrupulous marketers exploiting people's strong personal feelings on a subject (nationalism, minority rights, etc.) for commercial gain. And we fall for it again and again.
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