Today I’m going to give you a quick overview of my short experience as a China entrepreneur for reasons you’ll soon discover. So lets start with the end, and then we’ll work our way to the beginning.

Recently, I was honored to be invited and take part in UC Berkeley’s Asia Business Conference; I was a panelist for the consumer panel; moderated by Paul Tiffany, Senior Lecturer of the Haas School of Business. There I was sitting with Dave Sessions, VP Global ecommerce at Walmart International; Jose Davila, VP Field Human Resources GAP North America, and Dan Harris, founder and partner of Harris & Moure and writer of the famous China Law Blog.

I had a lot of fun at the talk, and it reminded me of a typical client meeting, except I was presenting to 100+ people vs. 5. The nature of the panel spanned the gamut of the subject, and I was told by Professor Tiffany that attendees were very happy with the result; I’ve requested a video of the panel; I’ll post if on LRB if I can get it.

After the talk I was pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by students asking me questions on what it’s like to be a China entrepreneur. I’m sure I babbled out appropriate answers to the questions asked, but it eventually brought me back to pondering my own true situation as an on-the-ground, in-the-trenches entrepreneur in China.

UC Berkeley Consumer Panel; From left to right; Dan Harris (China Law Blog, Harris & Moure), Me, Dave Sessions (Wallmart), and Jose Davila (GAP)

So in the interest of fully answering the “China Entrepreneur” question, I’m going to take those of you not already bored with this article down memory lane, and reflect on how many times I got my assed kicked, punched, and handed back to me in a beautifully arranged gift basket during my journey through China’s “wild wild east” business frontier… from the street level looking up.

Getting my ass kicked.

First off, I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I thought of myself more as a survivalist. The history of getting my ass in gear started with my previous job at McCann Relationship Marketing (MRM); part of McCann Worldgroup; they had “headhunted” me from a relatively satisfying job at Acxiom. I went to MRM cause I was expecting new frontiers, excitement, and a chance to do something other than customer data management (which is exactly as exciting as it sounds).

Soon after joining McCann I broke my collarbone in a motorbike accident. Due to whatever reasons, the medical team at Pudong’s Dong Fang Hospital were unable to fix the problem quickly; I had to have surgery, hammering a metal plate into my collarbone to realign the broken fragments; and for some reason the wound didn’t heal right.

This didn’t fit well with MRM apparently, and they eventually decided to fire me due to “productivity issues”. I guess when you need to go to the hospital to fix broken bones it takes away from your ability to work, huh? My bad. The parting farewell from MRM’s HR Director was “This is the rat race”. That didn’t really help smooth the feelings I had for McCann, but then, what could I do? I was a tiny bug they decided to squash, and squashed they did, and squashed I was.

Making something from nothing.

So that’s how I started. In 2005 I was out of a job, broken collarbone, no way to make money in the near future until my body healed. I ended up renting rooms out of my apartment to European students rolling through town just to scrap together some rent; typical dinner was a bowl of ramen noodles… when I wanted to treat myself and splurge, I would have 2 ramen noodles packets instead of one… and added soy sauce!

You can probably understand after an experience like this; putting your trust in a 4A agency, leaving past security to work with someone new, and then getting treated poorly and unceremoniously dumped due to circumstances beyond your control tends to either severely destroy your confidence and bury you in doubt and fear… or it strengthens you, puts fire in your belly to overcome challenges and claw your way back to stable footing; back to a position where you can stand, your back straight, your eyes locked on your target; your pride and self respect intact.

This was the beginning. You see, it’s not about secret sauces to success; it’s not about this trick or that trick, easy money, fast riches; Willy Loman-esque fool’s paradise. Getting yourself going relies on centuries, nay, millennia old formula; determination, will power, belief in the self, burning passion, and burned bridges to the life past; to those that burned you unjustly.

So that’s all well and good, but how do we make money? Like a beggar, we rely on the generosity of our friends first, in any form we can get it. My former boss at Acxiom, Gabrielle Chou learned of my dilemma and gave me a freelance job for about RMB 2000 per month (near USD 300/month). She didn’t have to do it; I had left her company suddenly, and of my own accord. But she did, and that money got me through the beginning. I’ll always be thankful to her for her kindness.

Living on RMB 2000 wouldn’t last long (I was up to 4 ramen noodles per meal; fit for a beggar king). I started to put the feelers out and slowly built a small client base, mostly for English copywriting services. Over time, I built my monthly profit from RMB 2000 to 5000, to 20,000. I could fill my bathtub full of ramen at this point, but as you may expect I was getting pretty sick of noodles; it was time to do more with the little I was able to build.

Passion & Insight.

One key thing I learned over time was that clients just want things to be easier. They don’t want to worry about this or that, what they look for is a reliable solution to their problems, something that runs almost on auto pilot, with minimal micromanagement from their side. If you can provide that consistently with minimal error, then you’re on your way to a strong relationship.

Building on this insight allowed me to build the company. From writing services came brochure design, from brochure design came printing jobs. As my design skills improved after landing clients like Porche, L’Oreal, International Paper; I started designing advertising, which led to placing advertising (ie: media planning and buying). This was Bloodyamazing, or BA360; my first venture. It was part business, part experiment, and through it I got a pretty good idea of China business, marketing, advertising, and the whole 360 picture of the China condition.

All of this I learned from nothing. At my source, I’m a writer, not a designer, or planner, or whatever. In fact, if not for tutorials on the Internet that taught me design, books from Amazon that taught me about advertising and marketing, I’d wouldn’t have grown as quickly as I did. But there’s a danger in that last sentence. While it’s true the wide availability of information helped me grow my business, it’s the burning passion, the centuries old formula of getting your hands dirty, getting the job done, and taking smart risks that produced success.

This burning motivation pushed me to create the Bloodyamazing brand, and if you’ve been following long enough, you probably saw all the different ways I experimented with the brand, growing and learning what worked and what didn’t from the ground up. The process was exciting, painful, and ultimately valuable.

Trust.

Perhaps the most important realization I’ve had going through the business gamut in China is the importance of finding those you trust. The first year of BA360 I was meeting a client at Mediaedge:cia (MEC), I bumped into a girl there; I noticed her, but she didn’t notice me. Soon, afterwards, using my ramen charms I got her out on a date; from there I eventually convinced her to leave her job at MEC and join my then 3 person staff at BA. Since then she’s been the backbone of my company, managing all my Chinese staffers and keeping us afloat; simply put, “I make the promises, she keeps the promises”.

Her name is Sherry, and I met her in 2006, we just got married February 14, 2010.

My wife, Sherry

Sherry and I have been together through the trenches, and having a partner I could rely on, whom I could trust has allowed BA to develop as it has. In 2009, as our company suffered through the financial crisis and the sudden evaporation of client budgets, Sherry built missniuniu.com, which, with the assistance of littleredbook.cn, became the basis of a new digital social media agency, ZeroDegrees.

It’s this new business, an evolution from BA360’s general focus to a specific niche service in China’s social media space that has allowed us to take steps further and gain greater recognition across the industry. If I didn’t have Sherry supporting me through challenge after challenge, I’d likely have nothing, or at the very best, much less than what I have now.

China partnerships; buyer beware.

The creation of ZeroDegrees was done, in part, with Mailman China and it’s owner, Andrew Collins, who also runs PostKard China. In retrospect this partnership had its good points, but also many bad points as well, which were difficult to foresee at the time of agreement.  This was a stronger marriage, one that involved shared equity. Going forward with partners, should you share equity, or simply strategically unite for the purposes of project-based profits? Perhaps this story will shed some light.

As I may have mentioned above, in all things business, the most important asset is the ability to trust your partners; trust that they will come through in thick and thin, and will be able to support your efforts as you push forward. My experience up to this point and likely beyond is that China business is exciting, but it’s a constant fight, mixed with serious amounts of luck; either to find more clients, beat your competition, build a staff of skilled talent, manage and balance all elements together, it isn’t easy; it can grind you down if you’re not strong, or if you cannot find strong partners.

Due to Mailman’s slow disintegration, losing key members, and then poor hiring of new staff that further compounded the company’s problems, eventually there was no time for Mailman to partner with BA; it became a part-time partnership, that eventually ended up in complete voluntary forfeiture of all responsibility for the business in all areas including general management, client management, client acquisition, etc; though oddly equal equity and high salaries were still demanded.

“Over Sell, Under Deliver” is a term I often think of when dealing with newer entrepreneurs, there’s an excitement there at the prospect of gaining new clients that leads novices to promise more than they can deliver. I came across this several other times as well; I’ve discussed my ideas with other entrepreneurs who then turned around and pitched my ideas to my clients. I’ve had partners that have the best intentions, but in the end find that they got themselves in too deep. All I can say to this is know what you’re doing, and have what it takes to see it all the way through.

The relationship with Mailman ended, which I’ll formally announce on LRB in the near future. It was a spectacular ending in its own way. Having our money borrowed by Mailman without the intention of return produced a lot of tension (we sort of felt it was stealing, but gave Mailman the benefit of the doubt), as did having BA pay full rent down to the bottled water and miscellaneous maintenance costs, and sudden forfeiture of all responsibility, which thereby put full burden on BA, coupled with demands for equity, high salaries, and large severance payouts. With such great imbalance, lopsided value exchange, you don’t need a Chinese fortune teller to predict trouble in the future.

Additionally, BA moved office to Mailman’s office to help their team get up to speed, training key members in Mailman on our experience and know how. As things disintegrated, Mailman suddenly gave BA 2 weeks to find a new office stating problems with “work culture”; this was at the beginning of February 2010, right before my wedding to Sherry in California and in the midst of handling Mailman forfeited client workloads as well as new client pitches and business development. On top of this, Mailman wanted to retain the clients BA had developed and managed, and then outsource execution work to BA; basically they wanted all the cream and none of the crap. All of this happened over 3 months; it was the equivalent of a business-bitch-slap.

These sudden 180 turns remind me a lot of what I experienced at MRM 5 years ago.  It reminded me of how important trust is, and how important it is to keep secure. Change happens quickly in China, and even quicker in China’s entrepreneurs. The only real security in this world is having plenty of options, and the flexibility to quickly switch gears when the need arises.

Marriage is hard, so I’ve been told. I can’t help but think had I entered the partnership based on value-for-value strategic alignment, rather than shared equity, it would have been easier to protect my assets, and pull out of the relationship when problematic issues became clear. However, I worked up until the end to come up with a reasonable balance of equity and benefits, which made the sudden ending all the more surprising. Were I to do it over, I certainly would have played more distant; but sometimes things move fast and it’s hard to determine good from bad decisions.

Sometimes we learn through curiosity, sometimes we learn by getting slapped across the face. I’m not sure which method is more effective, though I am sure the former is more pleasant. My impression of partnerships? Go for it; but keep your distance… and protect your ass, or in this case, your assets. From what I’ve heard, my experience is one of the lighter cautionary tales; far worse has happened to better, more skilled people than I. This is where luck factors in; and where a diversified pool of options shows its ass-saving value.

Onward.

The ending goes back to the beginning; I’m right now at this moment sitting in a plane flying back to Shanghai just after serving as panelist at UC Berkeley (though I’ll post after I land, of course) to very positive reception. I’ll also be flying on down to Singapore in a few days to judge the first round of the Effie awards; which I’ll report on LRB so readers get an idea of the process of judging effective global advertising.

As ZeroDegrees was my creation, it stays in my ownership; and we move forward with our clients, American Airlines, 3 Suisses; and recently Unilever Knorr. We’re looking at even more clients, though still need to build our company strong to service them well and are, by necessity, very selective on what we can take on.

We maintain stable strategic partnerships with several large global agencies, one of them being SapientNitro, of whom we’re honored to work with moving into the future. The lesson I’ve learned, or rather have had beaten into my head with a large stick is to maintain partnerships on a strict “value for value” basis; in that respect I hope our humble partnerships to these global giants will mutually benefit all in the coming years.

Oh ya, and I got married to the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met.

China online culture dictates: we must always take pictures of our food for internet posting. Compliance sample above: "Crab Chowder ala Sherry".

So to you, dear readers who were able to make it through this column of babble, perhaps you’re fellow colleagues in the industry, perhaps you’re a blogger like me, perhaps you’re one of the UC Berkeley MBA students, or maybe you just randomly stumbled upon this site. If I were to pick a few nuggets of wisdom from the spam that are my thoughts, I’d suggest to always be ready for great challenge, be ready to fight; the only way to survive is to love and believe in what you’re doing and have the balls of steel necessary to turn your goals into reality.

But my advice is lame; cause you’ve heard it all before. It’s the ancient rules, perseverance, diligence, passion, trust, faith; looking past fluff-filled words to pure action instead. It’s all that old stuff that forms the backbone of any entrepreneurial business; superior character, tempered steel; the ability to always do that which you are most afraid to do.

But don’t fret, it’s easy to go off course, these past few months have had me doubting as well; sometimes things pile up, less time, more responsibility, and the prospect of a single tiny misstep leading to unrecoverable failure; sometimes the challenges seem too great, overwhelming, daunting, overpowering.

Writing this is partly for you, but it’s also for me, to remind myself of what’s important and what’s not, and to take out my mental samurai sword and hack off the useless baggage of the past, so that I can move, full throttle, into the unknown, mysterious, seemingly bright future, with it’s partly-cloudy question-mark’d skies. How will this China entrepreneur story end? Will it all go down in spectacular failure? Or will Lady Luck favor me a few more times again?

I guess we’ll find out together.

Related articles from around the web.

• Need for business leaders in China (timesunion.com)
• enovate 2010 China Emerging Consumer Trends Report (slideshare.net)
• Berkeley Asia Business Conference: Glass Ceilings, Clint Eastwood, Nice People, And Vietnam Over China. (chinalawblog.com)
• Backpacker Likes China So Much That He Launches A Startup There And Becomes A (Profitable) Minor Celebrity – by Dominic Johnson-Hill (mixergy.com)
• Social entrepreneurs grin ear-to-ear at peer-to-peer (marsdd.com)

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There is a reason that every girl wish to have a big brother – even they could be too protective sometimes, it’s still an enjoyable relation.

On the contrary, having a younger brother wouldn’t be such a lovely journey in China. Especially when you think of how old generation/rural residents favor sons much more than daughters. And if you put a bit of thought on Confucian’s filial piety code of always taking care of the old and the poor, family or not? Oops! It seems however the parents are assured with this blind loyalty,  the succeeding generation would like to stick to their own interpretation of the old theory.

A poor sister exposed her story of parents’ “blackmailing” 200,000 RMB from her younger brother. And WE are not happy.

Younger brother is getting married, parents ask me to provide 200,000 RMB, or they will cast me off！

I wanted to post this a few days ago, but I was too busy to do that. I am on a business trip today, having some extra time, so come to write this.

My brother is getting married – found a girlfriend by himself. My parents are very happy, saying that he finally did something a right thing, which is finding such a good girlfriend. So, they really hope him get married ASAP. But my brother is extremely poor, and my parents only have 10,000 RMB, so they expect me to pay for the rest expense.

Please note that it is pay for, not  to lend.

Expense include:

1. Build a house for my brother in town.
The land is readily available – my parents’ old house, located in between the town and rural area, also considered as shop front.  They request that there should be three shop front rooms on the first floor, one living room and one bedroom with a bathroom on the second floor, one master bedroom and one bedroom on the third floor, each with a bathroom. In the back of the house, there should be one kitchen and one pigpen. According to the above construction, my parents’ anticipated expense is that 110,000 RMB for construction, 20,000RMB for decoration, totally 130,000RMB. Furniture and home appliances will be brought by the bride as marriage portion.

2. Betrothal gifts: 60,000 RMB.

3. Wedding expense: 20,000 RMB.
Totally 210,000 RMB – 10,000 from my parents, 200,000 from my side.

Building a house and betrothal gifts are the bride family’s requests, which is out of a long time bargaining. If we do not agree with it, the bride’s parents won’t marry off their daughter. Her parents were not very satisfied with my brother, and even rejected him at first. But the girl insisted, so they finally agreed. My parents are very satisfied with this girl, so they have to accept their request.

I did not agree with my parents to pay 200,000 RMB; I promised to spend 50,000RMB. But my husband did not agree that either – he asked me to provide 10,000RMB, and then lend 10,000 to my brother.

When I told my parents this, they got mad at me. My father even suffered from high blood pressure and went to the hospital. Parents told me seriously that if I provide the money, they would cast me off.

My financial condition is as following:
My major was a promising one so that I was hired by a pretty good company in Shanghai as a researcher. Have graduated for three years. My first year’s annual income was about 150,000 RMB, the second year 200,000, the third, 250,000.

Last year I bought a small house, near the subway station. It cost 800,000 in total, 270,000 RMB down payment. It spent my entire savings.

Then I saved another 150,000 RMB after that.

After graduation, my husband was assigned to a remote country for three years and came back just several months ago, then got a promotion.My husband is the only child. His parents are teachers of ordinary secondary schools in another province. The financial support they could offer to my husband is limited, but at least they don’t need to worry about their own life.Before going abroad, my husband also bought a small house and will finish paying for the loan when returned.

We decided to get married when my husband was back, and planed to tell parents first. But a month ago, my parents informed me to give 200,000 RMB. They said that since I wasn’t married, what I earn should be regarded as original family’s income and shouldn’t be taken to my husband’s family. And they have a general idea of my income.

My husband rejected immediately when I told him about this. Then we hurried up in looking for a house.

It wasn’t long till we made up our mind to buy one. 900,000 RMB down payments – my husband covered 750,000 and I took care of the rest. The property permit is in both our names. The contract signed, money paid.

And now I am now a broke.

Comments from tianya users:

在这看小说
Your parents asked you to offer 200,000, then they must know you are able to do that. 200,000  means nothing to you. Parents are not able to help their youngest son; they just hope you can do something as the oldest child. Moreover, this is your brother’s marriage for life. Just treat it as spending 200,000 on honoring your parents, please?

dsfdevil
It depends on whether you have the ability to do that. Maybe you can lend some money to your brother if it would put you in awkward position. Let him pay back it when he has enough money.

llww1000
Is it fair to your husband?
Do not raise a daughter as a money tree.
Disown the daughter?
That’s OK!
Parents do not treat their daughter as daughter. Why should the daughter still treat them as parents?
Don’t say that parents are never wrong parents in the world. What a crap! It is just blind loyalty and piety.

泪滴秦筝
How shameless your parents are! Made such a request!? Raise the son if you give birth to him.
Spend the money that you have. Why suck the daughter’s blood to feed the son?

stonelike
You brother is also wrong. He shouldn’t get married if he hasn’t enough money. Your sister in law is inconsiderate, either. Just give the money that you can afford. You are one family anyway.

Heavytail
Guess that you aren’t able to provide the 200,000 according to your income; maybe the expense will be paid by your husband…

琳儿不哭
You could give them some money appropriately, but 200,000RMB is not reasonable. After all, it’s your brother’s own marriage. If he didn’t try his best, why requesting the sister to afford the expense? I am more in favor of what your husband said. However, you can give 10,000 RMB more. Others is your brother’s concern.

东方琉璃
I suspect that whether the guys who support the sister to give out money all have a younger brother who is just no good for nothing?

Not saying that the sister shouldn’t give the money. As family, you will help when you should…But all the expense will be paid by sister?! Isn’t it out of line… especially that the brother is lazy, greedy and poor… Or you wanna raise him until he dies?

雨木华年
Frankly, your parents went a bit too far. But seeing what you said later, I think you are not a good thing, either. No matter how capable you are, it costs a lot for a rural family to raise a graduate student. It cannot be measured in monetary terms at that time. Of course, I have no offence for your husband. After all, he isn’t in your family side.

紫苏地榆
If you give the 200,000 RMB, you might will be requested to pay for the wedding. In addition, the betrothal gift will be your business and later their children will be raised by you, too. What’s more? Will you be responsible for their retired life?

pgyzero
It’s a little bit difficult to handle this kind of things.
Why not suggest separate the family property? And then you can give part of your belongings to your brother. It will not only take the affection into consideration, but also fit everyone’s interests. It should be more acceptable.

ljz888666555
Please forgive me to assume that, if the 200,000 RMB is not given to your brother, but to healing your parents, will you pay for it?

不好好吃饭就屠城
Your parents have raised you for 20 years.
Now they just want you to give an annual income to help them accomplish a lifetime will.
You are reluctant to do that?

loveseat
Do your parents want you to support your brother and his whole family for a lifetime? Reject it directly. Of course, you should support your parents, but you are not responsible for your brother’s life. It’s already enough for you to pay 10,000 and lend 10,000.
Seeing your brother like this, your parents must be supported by you in future.

newland2010
The old saying goes “The daughter who married off is just like the water poured out on the ground”. So the tradition is that what daughters earn before they get married belongs to her original home. Or it’s really losing money in raising daughters, for only sons could take responsibility to support parents. People like the OP, might expectes to take care of her parents by taking them in town to her home?

大气绿洲
I used to hear how selfless the parents love their children.
After growing up, I find things are totally different sometimes.

大漠古城
My situation is almost the same as yours. I have a brother, too. These days, my parents insist on my promising to be responsible for my brother’s marriage and house problem.
I’ve been in trouble recently.

前后左右大小
Now you say that you are without money and that your husband won’t give you the bankbook. It’s so…
Anyway, the good-for-nothing brother, the softhead sister…

绿尘
Just pay for the money depending on your ability. The principle is that you won’t regret doing this in future. In accordance with your couple’s income, actually, you can give more money to your brother. Certainly that it is not easy for you to live in Shanghai. It’s also reasonable for you to lay a good foundation on your own life first.

yiwanshangle
As a man, I personally think that you are not obligated to pay 200,000. It’ s right to support parents, but it’s unreasonable for the daughter to pay for brother’s marriage expense.
Not to mention that isn’t it obvious ripping off their son-in-law’s money to their son?
Those persons who ask OP to pay the money just live as the role of OP’s brother in real life.

[To view the original post please click here.]

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Hey all, as checking my Google buzz this morning, and found a cool link from Thomas Morffew for a site created by Ren Media. The article lists ten top reasons to use China social media, vs. Western media for a Chinese audience, I suspect.

Key elements refer to the same stuff you may have heard before, but apply them to China’s unique charecterisitcs; such as 400 million online users, of which an astounding 92% use social media, of these netizens, each has 2+ social media accounts.

Further reasons allude to what’s NOT available in China; Facebook and Twitter being blocked, as well as a host of other websites, blog creators (like Blogger.com). It’s an interesting succinct article that skates on the surface of what one can accomplish with China’s social media space. If you have a few minutes, give it a read.

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Wishing you a happy year of the tiger; hope this year brings you happiness, success, or wealth; and if you’re lucky maybe you’ll get all three.

I’m out in California now, which partly explains the laziness in updating LRB recently. It’ll be a busy week for me; first I’m getting married on Valentines day, then next week, I’ll be heading over to UC Berkeley to serve as panelist for the Berkeley Asia Business Conference; and then in early March will fly down to Singapore to judge the first round of the Effie Awards.

It’s nice to be so busy, but as my ever growing eyebags will attest, it’s taking its toll; methinks my energy regimen of caffeine + caffeine may need to be replaced with actual exercise at some point.

So as you travel to wherever you may this holiday, I wanted to sooth your souls with a quick snapshot I took at Pudong Airport, of China’s top level “Explosion Detection Device”; enjoy.

I feel safer already!

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Hey all, yet another post from the prolific Veronica; this one focuses on China’s “college student problem”; the system continues to churn out clones that are above average (when taken in context) but not up to par to the standards set by their global counterparts.

Whereas it was a sellers market years previous (exemplified by the high turnover rate of students who “jump” from job to job in an effort to increase their salaries) we now see a reverse of the trend, with companies infused with students with low skill; with nary a competent manager in sight.

That’s a problem. Here’s one Chinese college’s attempt to reverse the trend, and comments from Chinese netizens on the effort. Enjoy; -Rand.

There always seem to be  problems with China’s college education area. Sometimes people criticize on the general system; sometimes colleges disgust their students; parents blame universities for being too nice or too mean on their babies; when school authorities decide to do something for change, it’s just not good enough.

Before reading through the following post from qq.com, let’s get to know some factors on Chinese university students employment issue. As experts concluded, China’s graduates employment is facing three major problems:

1. On supply aspect, China’s higher education has entered to a popular level. Domestic annual graduates increased from 2.12 millions in 2003, 4.13 millions in 2006 to 6.11 millions in 2009. And this number is 6 times to 2001, when colleges first applied enrollment expansion – 1 million graduates only.

2.  On demand aspect, globalization and tech development form the time-background. Globalization and knowledge economy require graduates to be high-standard, diverse and flexible, which college graduates can’t adapt to in time.

3. Integrate the above two aspects, structural unemployment furthers employability issue. Gallup Market Research showed that in 2007, only 70% graduates are able to meet their jobs’ requirement. Seller’s market is gradually changing into buyer’s one.

Zhengzhou University Assigned Students to Earn 600 RMB by Mental Work during Winter Holiday.

“Earn a net income of RMB 600 during 35 days in holidays; Earn the money by mental work instead of physical ones.” Jan. 25, 2010, Zhengzhou University announced the beginning of winter holiday, when its students were assigned the above schoolwork.
“University students must start their career by their wisdom and create job opportunities for migrant workers instead of taking their job.” Sun Xincheng, The university’s deputy secretary of party committee said, the purpose of assigning this work is to bring up the students’ business sense. If they just do simple physical work, going to college would be a waste.

Special assignment requires earning money, but not by grabbing migrant workers’ jobs.

The Education College of Zhengzhou University’s winter assignment includes three practices. One of them is: earning RMB 600 by lawful method in five weeks’ winter holiday.

In details, it requires students must try their best to do mental work. The examination will measure the ratio of brainwork, working video and photo if needed. When assigning the schoolwork, the teacher concluded in one word – do not grab migrant workers’ jobs. Except the grade four students, there are more than 300 students in Zhengzhou University have been assigned the work.

Students’ reaction 70% students find the schoolwork difficult.

The journalist did a survey on 50 Zhengzhou University students randomly – 72% students found to complete the task is somehow difficult; 10% students thought they couldn’t accomplish it; only 18% students considered it easy.

Ding, a grade three student, said, “The winter holiday only lasts for 35 days. Apart from one week’s Spring Festival, there are only more than 20 days. Moreover, Spring Festival breaks the holiday into two parts – the time is too short to find a work.”

Zhang, student of Politics of Thinking, argues that the city lacks manual labor during Spring Festival and companies that require mental labor don’t hire part-times these days. It is easy to find a job of distributing flyers, but it’s also manual labor.

Rural students take 60%~70% in total student number of Education College of Zhengzhou University. The special task baffled many of them. Jin said that his home is located in Xingyang country and no one needs tutoring there – no mental work, and no money earning.

Netizens’ Comments on the article:

无敌
This university should publish school’s employment rate before assigning students the work (except students’ fake employment or students’ being arranged to job). What is the current situation now? Some leaders are really “easy to be brave at a distance”

书痴
If the students can’t earn money by mental work in the university, they still won’t be able to do that after graduation.

小城
A says to B, if you eat the dung on the ground, I will give you 600. Then B ate it. Then B says, if you eat the dung on the ground, I will give you 600. As a result, they both earn 600.

风月
It’s too easy. Several students come together and do the winter schoolwork for primary school students, and they can earn at least tens of thousands.

Reborn
It’s ridiculous. I have earned tens of thousands. I am just a freshman. I earned everything by mental work. The coffer is built by clicking keyboard.

麦一亚哈哈
I think the principal is just an idiot. Mental work? Even saying it need to open your mouth, mental work…

九十九岚
Programming can earn more than 100 thousands.

宝马女JJ
This University is so ridiculous! Nowadays we can find university students everywhere. How much are they worth? Don’t boast if you don’t have anything. Can’t stand this. It makes the students’ whole winter holiday miserable.

@巧林@饮酒笑
Instant Success! Misguide students!

@巧林@饮酒笑

@♀石头♂
“I think this proposal is good. University students have studied for so many years; they are old enough to earn 600 RMB by themselves. And the number is not too much. At least it is better than staying at home! Between university and employment is just a fine line. What they can do if they can’t earn even 600?”

Your view was one-sided! It is suitable for you but not for all. You think it is reasonable but not everyone thinks the same. You think earning 600 is good, but other might don’t. Chinese just like to join in the fun; there won’t be creativity without personal development. Do you think your proposal is good? It is wrong for you to regard your momentary insight as the truth for all. You shouldn’t do this!

老★间
This is the right thing to do, otherwise university is a waste!

真情流露
So poor university students!

金づ尘→假面
Good idea, but I don’t know whether the university courses are helpful for employment.

枫树叶的种子
The work is very good; should promote it.

∫烟雾迷漫∮
The idea is good. It can let students accept the working atmosphere earlier. As long as students try their best to use their wisdom, even they didn’t get 600 at last, they will not come back empty handed.

北鼻_Jane
Nowadays earning money by mental labor mostly relies on online the Internet. Open online shops are not economical for students, but they can write thesis for others. Also they can take part in regular race program to get the awards(such as the film Slum dog Millionaire). Many can sell some old things in their home.

So many ways, but I think the key is only dare to think and practice can one earn money. Don’t think too much about ways of the world. Business man always cheats. Do whatever is legal.

寒冬暖仙枫
I agree with this decision. Students should use their wisdom more – better than doing part time job in restaurants.

碧海之恋╩▓
“72% students found to complete the task is somehow difficult; 10% students thought they couldn’t accomplish it; only 18% students considered it easy.”

Clearly the task to prove Quality Education baffled most students. But if the students are only told to do something that everybody can manage, then college is really a waste.

I think 600 Yuan is not enough for many university students’ monthly expenses, and now to ask you make 600 RMB, it’s not much at all. And the students can know how hard their parents make a living! It also can let these students know the reality.

The way might need to be tested, although we can’t deny it is innovative.

@♀石头♂
I think this proposal is good. University students have studied for so many years; they are old enough to earn 600 RMB by themselves. And the number is not too much. At least it is better than staying at home! Between university and employment is just a fine line. What they can do if they can’t earn even 600?

UD
@无敌
“This university should publish school’s employment rate before assigning students the work (except students’ fake employment or students’ being arranged to job). What is the current situation now? Some leaders are really “easy to be brave at a distance.”

It is better than no thoughts! The manual labor isn’t the goal of university! Though sometimes manual labor is out of no choice.

燕子也有悲哀
When I was a university student in Zhengzhou, I earned money by sales work in the marketplace or getting sponsorship – in the name of my school – really benefit others as well as myself. Furthermore, I also earned money by mental works. I wrote examination questions for exam website. It helped me to get more than 400. And also, wrote for magazines make some small money.

In all, for students without many connections, it’s hard to make money. But it’s easier if you cheat!

[View original post by clicking here]

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Hey All, as you’ve no doubt heard, Google is refusing to comply with China’s censorship policies. This has become a pretty heated political issue; today, Veronica has compiled commentary from Chinese netizens responding to perceived attacks from Google at China. Enjoy -Rand.

Google’s pulling out of China set off China netizens’ concern in a fairly large scale. As many might have been complaining about the strict censorship and the intentional hidden of past political misery, Chinese’s deep rooted nationalism breaks out in front of Google’s – or so called American – scheme to incite anti-China sentiments.

The following post translation comes from one major forum, www.tiexue.net, which is fond of especially by mid-aged men. From this post, you might be able to come to understand Chinese’s views various with sexes or generations.

Google is Against China; Solid Proof Pisses off Netizens and Shocks Central Government

Keyword: 1
First result: 1989 Tiananmen Incident

Keyword: 8
First result: 89’ student unrest

Keyword: 6
First result: June 4th Movement

Keyword: zh
Second result: CCP became extinct

American Google is proved to be anti-china, it must be seriously judged by history.
Chinese netizens should prosecute it to the supreme court, strongly hitting the American spy organization “Google”.

Comments on tiexue.net:

万邦来朝
Google is an American spy organization. Its providing internet service is just a mask. In fact, Google is doing the horrible crimes of anti-china and anti-CCP. It must be punished by law!

mizer
The American government takes advantage of the internet power to control Google, Twitter behind the scenes, tries to overthrow the local government under the banner of democracy and freedom. Google has become the distributing center where people spread anti-china information.

一统四海
It’s an “internet color revolution”. Google has turned out some jackals of American imperialism. Just look at those who bark all around! The so-called free speech is just a damn mask! Free speech means libel, means spread of bad things that poisons people’s mind. It’s adverse to the development of civilization and totally against the moral code!

Riezhi
Google is same as VOA, obviously not just a common business company, but a “cop in plain” supported by government and military.

159385266
He said, she said. It’s so hard to tell the truth! Only seeing is believing!

无极之地
Google is a totally idiot. Why not filter its search results? It should learn from the internal mainstream media, always lead to positive things and go with the stream: Whatever against the government is reactionary; whatever the party wants me to say I’ll say it thousands of times.

LP111
Creep! Google is just a search engine, filtering the results is not its duty! Why you keep on forcing Gooele to filter it? What’s so unpresentable?

Nokia16633
Does Google really love China and Chinese people? No! It just loves our money. It sings loud the anti-china tone under the banner of free speech.

风中之旗
Recently some power is ready to make trouble. Watch out a new wave of anti-china movement!

Zhstone
It’s impossible to block the Internet completely. I don’t believe China government will implement the policy to block the world’s information! As an ordinary internet user, I use Baidu more than Google. And even though Google is a big American company it still can’t challenge the china government, because that violates the principle of running a business company. Google has to obey Chinese law. Just think what will come to a Chinese company in America if it threatens America government because it suffers unfair treatment.

jingsiyisheng
Quit china market quickly! Our political system can never be threatened by a trivial website.

Yase
I’d like to teach you something: Does a government equal to a nation?
If you don’t even know this basic concept, then stop grumbling about these anti-china things! What does “China” mean? It means a nation. And what is a government? It’s just an organization which acts to govern a nation. Of course people have the right to judge this organization’s statecraft! Does fascist prevail on internet now?

信条
Let’s go on using the American-holding Baidu! – -|

sha_li37
It’s so frustrating! I was hoaxed into believing that you really have the proof positive, ha ha.
Baidu used to have the links leading to negative content too, that just the automatic result of search engine spider simulator. Now the related links on Baidu have just been artificially interfered while Google just gives the search result completely according to the simulator. You’re such an idiot to treat this thing without technology content as an anti-china proof.

Rafom
The cause may be various. It’s do possible that some anti-china group is stirring up trouble. But please don’t blindly attack Google only because of its search results.

Tex033
Try Baidu, you will know; Try Google, you will know too much……

armkean
Funny! You think this is the proof of anti-china? No matter right or wrong, those are still big history events, why we have to block them? Are they harmful to be talked about? Is it good to live in the utopia, acting like a cat shuts its eyes when stealing cream? We can’t excessively console ourselves all the time!

蓝色沙丘
Seeing so many internet commentator hired by government, I nearly died Laughing! An ordinary person will never speak like that!

Armkean
Baidu user just can’t understand Google user’s feeling.
Frankly speaking, the scientific research personnel must use Google all the time. Is it right that we emphasize the importance of technology improvement while blaming Google on the same time?
If Baidu is capable of science search then I’ll be ok with the internet blockade.
It’s so funny to see lots of people scolding Google when I finally found among them there is no Google user.

ttt898
If we still block the information in the information age, we’ll only weaken ourselves. It’s harmful for people, country and party.

[View the original post by clicking here]

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Hey All, the below is from Veronica who is writing about Zhang ZiYi, a famous Chinese movie star and whether she represents Chinese women. It’s an interesting culture article and a good way to get quick insight into the heart of the Chinese woman. Enjoy; -Rand

As the proudest international star from China, the spotlight brings Ziyi Zhang just the same troubles as fame. Recently, she is suffering from some terrible trust crisis among the public. And we can see all kinds of media reports and arguments bomb online and offline.

Below is the translation of some heated discussions happening in tianya.cn:

Special Survey: Is Zhang Ziyi  Qualified to Represent Chinese Women?

Since the end of last year’s “Ink-Splashed Gate” incident , Zhang Ziyi’ s affairs almost have occupied all headlines of domestic leading print media and entertainment web pages. A few days ago, some TV channel broadcasted an interview of Zhang ZiYi, finally it said “Zhang Ziyi  is on behalf of the Chinese movies, Chinese women”,  ”Zhang Ziyi shows the world the image of Chinese women” etc.

Now, regardless of right and wrong on “Ink-Splash Gate” ( I believe that the law will finally clear Miss Zhang’s name), we just talk about whether Miss Zhang’s manners and behaviors could represent Chinese women before the incident.

Title: Zhang Ziyi and her new boyfriend’s close contact all exposed in Hong Kong
click to read the original post

Content excerpt: ” Zhang seemed very excited for the appearance of Huo QiShan, she cannot help but start dancing with Huo. At first, Huo looked a bit reserved for Zhang’s coquetry, or even didn’t know what to do but just danced not too close. But after he had several glasses of  champagne from Zhang. This kind of flattery made Huo Qishan gradually open himself.

After first step succeeded, Zhang Ziyi’s seductive behavior continued to escalate, and their body got much closer. Huo Qishan could not help but finally took off his coat. Zhang Ziyi was more excited after seeing his taking off his coat, she unbuttoned his shirt and touched his chest wittingly. The two danced face to face and became more and more closer. Although there were a lot of people around at the time, Zhang was not evasive, she put her hand on the inside of Huo’s thigh at intervals and almost forgot herself .” Hong Kong media reported it more explicit, but for the general sake of the young people’s healthy growth, there is no reprinting here.

Survey 1: China’s 600 million female compatriots, how many of you will get a room with a man who you just know for several hours? Do you want to be represented by this kind of woman?

Comments from Tianya users:

Tugoudeweiba
Having the qualification to represent the kind of women whose life is chaotic and regardless of sense of shame to get fame and gain.
But they are not all chinese women!!!!

可口不可口
Proposing force-out St. Paul Chapter
This person can’t present Chinese woman, she was equally unscrupulous and used all kinds of methods to get advantage. She only disgraced the whole Chinese women, and she was the negative sample.

happydaily8888
We have the right to know the use of that one million U.S. dollars earthquake donation!
Requesting Zhang Ziyi to make a positive response for it!!!
Kakastone
Zhang Ziyi, please learn from edison Chen that quit the entertainment forever.
After this while, please organize a new PR team and plan a gallant regression

春哥曾哥都是我哥
She didn’t say t she is the representative.
I have no idea about who are the people upstairs? Whether you are passerby or fans, the adjective is so venomous……..Did Ziyi do something wrong? Such as rob your boyfriend or has some illegal love affair with your father? Did you need to rob the owner while his house is on fire and let her into impasse?

koll87
I like Ziyi, she support her by herself. She has the freedom to live like this.

Zackcody
Ziyi’s deceiving the public so as to build up a false reputation can be promoted by the mainstream media, it present the backslide of Chinese 5000-year traditional moral and the disjoint between some ranks of people and traditional moral.

Zackcody
I think she can represent Zhang ‘s network gunman.
The network gunman of Zhang Ziyi basically has the same moral orientation with Ziyi’s
Being famous and reaching the purpose unscrupulously is the reason that Zhang Qiang adore Ziyi.

浣熊2008
Ziyi is only a actress, why let she be the representative of Chinese women. I don’t think which women is suitable for the big position. It is inappropriate to let she be the representative of Chinese actress, so it’s enough to let she represent herself.

你瞧你丑的
I think she is not bad and doesn’t has much different between the screen and the reality, it’s no problem.

赵财猫
I think Deng Ya Ping has the qualification to represent the Chinese women, it’s only personal opinion.

支持章
She knows some important person, so is there any usefulness for us to agree?

Another post on Tianya.cn:

Whoever Doesn’t Want Zhang Ziyi to Represent Chinese Women, Come to Vote!

Since Zhang Ziyi enter the business, she has been self-claiming to represent the Chinese people. Such as ”the pride of Chinese people”, “Zhang Ziyi is better than a 100 Confucius”.

Take a look at Zhang Ziyi’s misdeeds, which one would a proud Chinese do?

Zhang Ziyi crime 1: “Wenchuan earthquake”.

Avoided the Chinese Stars contributions, she claimed that had raised a million USD, but it was later reported that she had donated one million RMB. She had the audacity to embezzle Earthquake’s donation? ?While our compatriots were suffering, Zhang Ziyi took the opportunity to hype herself, or even benefited from national calamity ! ! !

Zhang Ziyi Crime 2: “Beach Gate”.

81 pictures of Zhang Ziyi showed her ugly images. I really can’t expect how can such a person represent all Chinese people? Don’t say that Zhang Ziyi is the victim, bared her bottom to let the foreign monkey fuck her, so ,that could be regard as the victim? ? Did she still has the face to claim herself ” the representative of Chinese image”? ?

Zhang Ziyi Crime 3:”Splash Ink Gate”.

Although the “Ink Gate” has no final conclusion, it’s also too early to judge the right and wrong, but Zhang Ziyi took the money which shouldn’t be taken and had sex with the person who shouldn’t sex with, and these are undisputed!!!

Zhang Ziyi Crime 4: “Arrogant remarks”.

China has always been a humble nation, take a look at Zhang Ziyi’s arrogant remarks. Such as:”I do dare to wear others do not dear to wear , I do dare to say others do not dare to say, I do dear to do others do not dear to do!” “I have a good looking and still be single, men must be interested in me!”

Having said all these, we’d better to send emails directly to the brands the “international superstar ” represent for , or just call them, to tell them you feel so disappointed at the actor who has so obvious flaws in character ,even disappointed that such kind of actor was their advertising spokesperson. The followings are the advertisers’ contacts details .It’s very simple that you just take only 2 minutes to send an e-mail to these advertisers and tell them you are so disappointed that the “international superstar” is the advertising spokesperson of their brand. That’s enough.

OMEGA

http://www.omegawatches.cn/index.php?id=337&L=3

Maybelline

http://www.maybellinechina.com/CONTACT_US.aspx

Benz

http://contact.mercedes-benz.com.cn/

Preciousplatinum

http://www.preciousplatinum.com/zh-CN/about-platinum-guild/contact-us.aspx

Comments from Tianya users:

红提绿苹果
I just do not want to be represented! So I send over all the emails. If Miss ZZY Miss felt that the public has been misled by the media, please show the receipt, issue a summons to depend on the legal weapon defend her dignity! !

天涯雀子
We discussed what kind of complaint letters was reasonable. It must put facts, have reasons, evidence, and powerful. I wrote one for reference.
We are shocked by the negative news happened on Miss Zhang Ziyi, the product representative of your association: the ambiguous relationship between a number of wealthy merchants, suspected of obtaining property by deception, donation one million US dollars but have no proved documents. Take out the statement of her boyfriend with no signature to  insult the public intelligence. Against the media instead of the news people, which called bully the weak and fear the strong. Such person represents your noble and pure Association seems like a joke. We hope your seriously consider the contact with Miss Zhang Ziyi before the clarification of the negative

舞动的豆子
Which star is clean?

支持章
Support you very much. I hate to be represent by this kind of woman. If Gong Li instead of her, maybe I can accept.

支持章
Who is using ridiculous words to attract the masses!
Who is using all topics to raise her exposure!
Who is manufacturing false news, raising the international status!
Who is using the grief of the people of the whole country, using patriotic trick, successfully boarded the media headlines!
The truth. We need only the truth.
we just want the people who took advantage of grief that came from the Wenchuan earthquake to speculate and buy reputation for himself deserve punishment.

纳米
In fact, what you said these, I almost can accept , except that the earthquake donation became from one million U.S. dollars to one million yuan.
What disgust me most is her using the pretext of the Olympic Games , actually, Olympic Flame is not her business, but she paid for her visiting the Olympic Games ,take some pictures ,and regarded herself as VIP when she returned. It seems that she join in torch lighting. I’ve seen shameless persons, but never seen such a shameless person.

lihua_fan
It’s so boring that abuse each other
Who are boring, Zhang Ziyi’s fans or Zhao Wei’s fans? Please supervise and urge your master to face the media and the masses directly and actively.
Bring the public the truth.
By cussing and attacking each other is unpopular.

Ohonly
I send over all the emails.
Support LZ.
I hate Zhang Ziyi.
But I used to admire her for her successes by her own ability.
Haha.

新鲜的生活
Saying that I have never felt that she was able to represent Chinese women.

小鬼斗
I just want to say , I don’t hate her, but I feel repelled by your aggressive .

你是谁的花
Too much scandals, it seems disgusting no matter how luxurious products she speaks for.

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2. Ask Rand; “How to match UK agencies to China marketing directors?” I get a lot of inquires through LRB, many of which ask for quick bits of advice. I’ll normally answer these things one-to-one, but since there’s some overlap there, I figured I’d start posting some of my answers. Why?...
3. “Does Zhang Ziyi Represent Chinese Women?” Hey All, the below is from Veronica who is writing about Zhang ZiYi, a famous Chinese movie star and whether she represents Chinese women. It’s an interesting culture article and a good way to get quick insight into the...

This recent campaign by Wildaid is pretty interesting; I’d venture to say most wildlife protection advertising is great; as their primary focus is to shock the crap out of you to get you to change your point of view. In this particular campaign seen in China’s subways; Wildaid shoots endangered animal posters with money, through the billboards glass. The end result is a billboard with a bullet hole; the center of which features a coin.

The intended communication? Each time you buy even a coin’s worth of endangered species produced product, you’re pretty much shooting the animal; sometimes on the torso, but in the case of elephants, in the face. Though difficult to see the actual copy (at first you’d almost think it was a Discovery Channel ad with animals leaping out of the billboards toward you) once the message is absorbed it has impact; and execution-wise it’ll catch your eye.

However, one must wonder of the effect on highly-trafficked China subways; will enough people, rushing from point A to point B stop to get the sense of the communication? Or will they simply tune into the Discovery Channel thinking to catch the new “3D animal show”?

Kinda hard to feel bad when the killer shark is shot by the underwater sniper.

That's one happy fish.

Ouch.

–

The actual glass in front of these posters was fractured as though a bullet had been shot through it. In the bullet hole is a coin suggesting that if you spend a cent on the illegal trade of endangered animals you may as well pull the trigger yourself.

Advertising Agency: JWT Shanghai, China
Executive Creative Directors: SheungYan Lo, Yang Yeo
Creative Directors: Grace Liu, Roy Yeo, Cecilia Zhu
Art Directors: Daisy Zeng, David Mo
Copywriter: Jun Qian
Digital Imaging: Xin He Imaging

Related articles from around the web.

• ‘Let Pandas Die Out’, Says Wildlife Expert (news.sky.com)
• ‘Pet’ Siberian Tiger Mauls Owner To Death (news.sky.com)
• Asia’s greed for ivory puts African elephant at risk (guardian.co.uk)
• The Namibian conservation safari that keeps both animals and tourists happy (guardian.co.uk)
• List of 10 Countries with The Greatest Number of Endangered Species (simplygreen.co.za)
• Mapping out state wildlife just got easier (timesunion.com)
• Wildaid: Shark, Bear, Elephant (ibelieveinadv.com)

Related posts:

1. Ask Rand; “How to match UK agencies to China marketing directors?” I get a lot of inquires through LRB, many of which ask for quick bits of advice. I’ll normally answer these things one-to-one, but since there’s some overlap there, I figured I’d start posting some of my answers. Why?...
2. Construction cranes in the bamboo forest; Balancing nature and urbanization in China PSA Advertising. Great PSA ad campaign focuses on China’s preference  for urbanization over environment. This style of Chinese landscape painting is very traditional, and can be seen pretty much anywhere in China. By mixing elements of urbanization (ie: construction towers, etc)...
3. TianTian; Fart jokes + Air Freshner; classic Chinese humor? Here’s a pretty gross ad. At first I thought it was kinda funny (which it still is), but then I thought, “Well shouldn’t it also take all surround odors out of the air, rather than contain the one shooting...

I get a lot of inquires through LRB, many of which ask for quick bits of advice. I’ll normally answer these things one-to-one, but since there’s some overlap there, I figured I’d start posting some of my answers.

Why? Well this gives you a glimpse into China and marketing strategic thinking; and plus, perhaps some of my propaganda colleagues will chime in to either support me or tear my thinking apart. Now while I would prefer the former, I’ll admit the latter will be a lot more interesting for all involved.

If you want to ask me a question; go to the contact page and shoot it over. If it’s value-add for readers; I’ll post it up in a new article for discussion. Onward.

“Message for Rand Han – Firstly congratulations on your [first] annivessary- here is to many more! Just briefly to twist your ear – I’m one of a team planning an event in Shanghai in May this year which will bring UK ad agencies together with selected Chinese agencies and marketing directors. I wanted to get your opinion on the likelihood of setting up a successful match making exercise between UK agencies and marketing directors in China. What is the likelihood of reaching out to Chinese marketing directors in your view? Would they come to such an event? Or is it better to focus on foreign brands in China. A proportion of the UK agencies will be offshoots of major media agencies so reputation would not be an issue. It would be great to get a reply and maybe speak on the phone – best regards and all the best.”

My answer and subsequent discussion is posted in the comment section below.

Related posts:

1. Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money. This recent campaign by Wildaid is pretty interesting; I’d venture to say most wildlife protection advertising is great; as their primary focus is to shock the crap out of you to get you to change your point of view....
2. TianTian; Fart jokes + Air Freshner; classic Chinese humor? Here’s a pretty gross ad. At first I thought it was kinda funny (which it still is), but then I thought, “Well shouldn’t it also take all surround odors out of the air, rather than contain the one shooting...
3. Adidas; Beautiful ads that say nothing. I picked this up from LRB’s forums; this campaign features very beautiful imagery – and a message that’s a bit off from what you’d expect – “everyone has their own reason for running”. What the ad doesn’t really communicate...