Text by Wang Fang

On November 23, 2009, a 30-second television commercial, designed to promote Chinese-made goods, debuted on CNN (Cable News Network). The ad depicts a variety of products along with the slogan “Made in China, Made with the World.” A jogger bends to lace his shoes bearing the text, “Made in China with American Sports Technology.” A family enjoys breakfast, and their refrigerator nearby bears the label, “Made in China with European Styling.” A businessman looks out of the window of an airplane that states, “Made in China with Engineers from All Over the World”…

Maxime Hrayssi, a French fashion designer, has introduced the latest Paris trends to Chinese consumers with jeans that he designed. Recently, he opened a jeans specialty store named after himself in Shanghai. CFP

This is the first-ever global branding campaign for Chinese-made products as a whole. The TV advertisement was jointly sponsored by four Chinese industry groups: the China Advertising Association of Commerce, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industrial Products and Arts-Crafts, and the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles. The ad’s six-week run on CNN USA, CNN Headline News, and CNN Asia began November 23.

Actually, design, planning, and creation of the ad began as early as 2008. In June of that year, DDB-Guo’an, a joint venture between DDB China (working with Omnicom Group Inc., the world’s biggest advertising group) and Beijing-based Guo’an Advertising Corp., won the bid for producing the commercial. The company “devoted a great deal of effort to its creation,” according to Liu Libin, executive vice president of the China Advertising Association of Commerce. “From the very beginning, our purpose was clear and firm. We wanted to express that Chinese-made products are safe and high quality. Finding exactly how to demonstrate this idea in a way that is acceptable to the most people worldwide wasn’t easy,” he adds.

Liu attended meetings related to the ad’s creation at least 15 times. Several early proposals were rejected, but after gradual improvements in the concept, the ad was eventually completed in November 2008. “The final version was quite different from early proposals,” Liu comments. “Perhaps it isn’t perfect, but I think it turned out good.” He adds that the investment in the advertising campaign was “moderate and rational.”

An Airbus 320 about to roll off the assembly line in Tianjin. CFP

As the ad expresses, most made-in-China products are actually fruits of international cooperation. Statistics indicate that half of China’s manufacturing exports were made by foreign-funded enterprises and that for high-tech and electronic products, the proportions were 83 percent and 75 percent, respectively. Zhao Jinping, vice director of the Foreign Economics Department of the State Council Development Research Center, argues that the “made-in-China” trend is the result of a shift in global industry, international division of labor, and multilateral cooperation.

Additionally, more than half of China’s manufacturing exports were the result of processing, meaning that raw materials, accessories, and machines are imported to China to assemble final products for export to consumer markets abroad. “In fact, both China and other countries benefit from Chinese-made products,” Zhao asserts.

Today, many still regard China as “the world’s factory” at the low end of the global industry chain, but the situation is constantly changing.

For nearly 20 years, China has been the world’s largest textile manufacturer and exporter. “Over the past two decades, China’s textile industry has taken big steps forward and matured with other countries,” remarks Wang Yu, vice president of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles. Today, the chamber has nearly 11,000 member enterprises, of which more and more have grown from OEM manufacturers to become trend setters in the fashion industry. “In the past, foreign buyers provided designs which Chinese manufacturers used to make clothes. But now, many prefer to choose directly from designs offered by Chinese manufacturers,” Wang claims. “China’s textile industry has evolved from a ‘made-in-China’ period to the ‘designed-in-China’ era.”

October 23, 2009: Inez Tenenbaum, head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, inspects a Chinese-made all-terrain vehicle during the 3rd China-U.S. Consumer Product Safety Summit in Shanghai. CFP

As the world emerges from the global financial crisis into a new era of international commerce, Chinese manufacturers hope that the world’s businesses see that international cooperation is a key to success in the new millennium, and the new advertisement communicates this idea distinctly.