Things are a little quiet in China during its New Year celebrations, so here is an advert that although filmed entirely on location in the Mainland was actually devised by a South African based ad agency.
The commercial is another ‘Glass and a Half Full‘ production (famous for the ‘Gorilla‘ ad) promoting Cadbury chocolate. The setting is a Buddhist monastery, but things turn slightly surreal when purple helium balloons start flying around. See it for yourself below:
On Vimeo
On Tudou
Shooting took place in both Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces respectively. But since airing, a number of Western blogs / websites have referred to the ad offensive and stupid through the way it makes a joke of Buddhist monks. It should be noted the supposed “monks” featured are in fact extras with shaved heads. You can read more about the shoot here.
Is this TV commercial offensive or is it just a good bit of fun?
Credits:
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg
Creative Directors: Fran Luckin, Jonathan Beggs
Production Company: Bouffant, Johannesburg
Executive Producer: Melina McDonald
Production Service Company: P.I.G. China
Executive Producer: Nick Dodet
Director of Photography: Timothy Pike
Director: Erik van Wyk
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