![]() ![]() Like many western brands, Leica is counting on the growing disposable income of the Chinese middle class to drive sales. Still, the film could have costly implications for the German company as the Chinese government is intensifying its campaign to scrub the domestic Internet ahead of the 30th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown this year. The camera maker - unlike Dolce & Gabbana - did not release the video on Chinese social media channels. have had to apologize for listing Tibet and Taiwan as nations on their websites, while Italian luxury house Dolce & Gabbana is still blocked from local e-commerce sites after an ad deemed to mock Chinese shoppers went viral last November. Companies from Marriott International Inc. ![]() Leica joins a growing list of foreign consumer brands that have found themselves on the wrong side of political or cultural sensitivities in China, as the world’s biggest group of consumers flex their might. While the commercial jumps between different scenarios, its main thread follows a photographer who captured the iconic image, known as “Tank Man,” of a lone Chinese protester standing in front of a line of army tanks. The five-minute video, titled “The Hunt,” celebrates western photographers documenting conflicts in foreign countries with their Leica cameras, even as they’re threatened with personal harm. The reaction was swift: After appearing on various websites Thursday, by Friday morning China time the word Leica in English or Mandarin had been banned from the micro-blogging platform Weibo for “violating laws, regulations or the Weibo community guidelines.” Some Weibo commenters lambasted the company, while others left candle emojis - a common symbol of remembrance of victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, an incident Beijing has scrubbed from the country’s official history. (Bloomberg) - Leica Camera AG of Germany is the latest foreign company to spark a backlash in China over marketing material seen as offending local sensibilities, this time for a video that re-creates scenes seemingly from China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
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