Car manufacturer's advert offends Chinese

7 February 2008

French car-maker Citroen has apologized to China for running a full-page advertisement in several Spanish newspapers featuring a poster of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pulling a wry face at a sporty hatch-back.

Under the Biblical quotation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's," the text talked up Citroen's position as a car sales leader in a bombastic tone. "It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops," the advertisement said.

The Mao poster is similar to the huge painting of the Great Helmsman gazing out over Beijing's Tiananmen Square, except that it has been distorted to show lips screwed up and eyes squinting.

"The image has been wantonly distorted by the ad's designers. Mao looks very strange," Chinese state newspaper the Global Times observed Tuesday. The scowling Mao had infuriated Chinese Internet users who saw it as a slight, it said. "As a Chinese, I felt greatly insulted when seeing this ad."

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