China’s Nation and Product Branding in New York’s Times Square in the Post-Beijing Olympics Era

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts how the Chinese government brands China and how Chinese advertisers market their products in the United States after the Beijing Olympics. I focus on China’s publicity campaign in 2011, and various Chinese companies’ outdoor ads in New York’s Times Square. New York City (NYC) is a quintessential symbol of global capitalism and modernity in China’s imagination. I situate the analysis in the broader context of China’s public diplomacy in terms of neoliberal economics, the dialectics of nationalism and cosmopolitanism, and the gendered advertising culture in China. The article ends by discussing implications of these campaigns and the challenges that China and Chinese companies face when attempting to go global.