22:24 World of Warcraft, S.H.E., and Coke » Danwei RSS 2.0Having defeated the lecherous orc, S.H.E. finds a thirst-quenching treasure cache.World of Warcraft has arrived on the Chinese mainland, and Blizzard, the producer, has joined hands with the Coca-Cola Company in a new "iCoke" ad campaign. The latest ad spot features CGI avatars of S.H.E.'s Ella, Selena, and Hebe vanquishing a fearsome monster that wants them to sell out.
The S.H.E. ad is aparently meant to be inspirational, fitting with Coke's slogan, "For satisfaction, look to yourself." The group faces an unscrupulous music executive who wants them to dress more revealingly in order to sell more records. They refuse, and when the exec reacts angrily, the girls take a sip of Coke, which launches them into the World of Warcraft universe. They proceed to teach the guy a lesson while wearing the chaste costumes female video game characters are well-known for.
Fantasy battles are quite common on the Chinese front of the Cola Wars. Pepsi's campaign last year featured their entire line-up of young stars slinging magic missiles around in an immense amphitheater. The most recent Pepsi spot, which introduces new recruit Nicholas Tse (see Danwei's previous post on the subject), is a frenzy of icy CGI wings and projectiles. Coke's ads are red where Pepsi's are blue, but there's not much else to distinguish between the two.
16:19 Arrived at Garching, Munich » 桑林志I have arrived at Garching, Munich. Everything is fine, but my computer doesn’t have Chinese input yet. This is a problem. Sorry I can’t response to your comments right now.
Garching is a small town near Munich, Germany. Life here is Lesiury, and the surrounding is peaceful. Can you believe that we went to pick [...]
15:58 Animal magic in The Beijing News » Danwei RSS 2.0(The scene: The Beijing News office, Beijing.)EDITOR: Hey, Xiao Huang. Stop playing Freecell! We have a paper to write.
XIAO HUANG: Yes boss.
EDITOR: That three-legged cow story was really popular, you know. Do you have any more crazy animal antics to fill all that terrible space in our newspaper this week?
XIAO HUANG: Erm. (Shuffles through a pile of papers.) How about these ones, boss?
EDITOR: Excellent. These escaped pigs escaping from the... erm.. police will fill page 13 on Monday, while these crazy traffic hazard monkeys of Guiyang can help us deal with our content problem for Tuesday. Good work Xiao Huang!
15:52 Nanny's crawlers bite daddy in the ass » Danwei RSS 2.0Century Hero is a film production company under the state-owned CITIC investment group. In other words, it is 100% controlled by the central government. Which makes it rather hilarious that Century Hero's website has been targeted by the Nanny's crawling software because the owner of the site has not registered it.
When you try to go to Century Hero's website, you get a popup window stating the following:
According to notification from the Ministry of the Information Industry, all websites must Interet Content Provision registration. Your company's website has not completed the registration formalities. Please work with your service provider to register immediately, otherwise your website will be closed down by the supervising departments of all districts. if you have any questions, please call 010-6395 2600 or 6395 2800.
Links and Sources
Century Hero (Chinese): Homepage
The image is a screenshot of the Nanny popup, click to enlarge
Thanks to Chris Barden for the tip