I've always harbored the feeling that life here is akin to living in a bubble but it's never been more evident than now. Hermetically sealed from all the global goings on that would have me thinking the sky is falling. But even our little oasis of gaudy neons and fake Louis Vuitton lugging population is not immune to a little downturn. Well after all, if everyone else is doing it, Shanghai will want to get in on it too.
On the shopping strips the turnover of new business isn't as immediate as it once was. Obviously meaning it won't be converted into something completely different in two hours – it's now more like five. Also, 'For Lease' signs are a novel addition to the retail landscape while it's the first time in almost five years I have seen vacant stores.
A number of clubs, bars and restaurants have closed but as this was something that was going on with enough regularity it can hardly be attributed to the tightening of the economy. What's more to blame is an over-catering to a singular group of consumers – technically known to marketers as rich peeps.
Sure, rich peeps possess a lot more money to splash around than your average Mr. and Ms. Wang but not at the same kind of place offering the same over-priced foie gras. Of course, I'm as much of a fan of over-stuffed goose liver as the next guy but even I can tell you it's not a sustainable plan.
I have no doubt that there have been a number of foreign victims of the politely named 'downturn' that gave way to a much more accurate recession. Every business in the export or financial industries have been hit and obviously that's where a lot of the concern, and expulsion, is centered.
This is also more the case of the huge manufacturing and export cities down south with mass migration of its workforce back to their hometowns. There they will await their uncertain future the best way they can and hopefully not consider descent – as the government is fearful idle workers get up to. Well, I know that's what I like to do if I don't have a TV script to work on, so it's fair to think it would be the same for them.
Usually advertising goes the same way and with the larger traditional ones, they are. Many suffer, with their clients shrinking budgets or even deserting, like rats would a sinking ship. Not that I would ever liken clients to rodents but sometimes they smell a loser and don't want to be associated with one when the time comes to re-assess their relationships. They have to jump ship to somewhere and apparently that somewhere at the moment is the company I'm working.
Thankfully the company has become a client magnet with many joining last year but unfortunately the type of client we have attracted has been the ugly type. Perhaps like attracts like or was that opposites attract?
Normally when I complete my weekly timesheets and press 'submit' things generally go according to pre-programmed plan and all is good with the world. However, lately I'm greeted with a message informing me that I have exceeded 60 hours and need to verify that I'm not really just having a laugh at the company's expense.
I'm not talking about submitting totals that are just scraping over the limit mind you, I'm doing my best to double them; so I verify and suspect I'm working a little more than usual. I suppose you know you're in trouble when you find yourself turning off the lights in the office and then turning them on again the next morning.
You tend to believe you might be in deeper trouble when you realise that the clients you are doing this for are quite possibly one of the most mentally challenged group of idiots you have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Surprisingly it was all still navigable, as with experience we creative ad folk obtain arcane advertising skills to overcome some of these obstacles. It's got something to do with conjuring up dead ad guys but I'm not allowed to divulge any more then that. However, what threw me over the edge was that the client would communicate to us in the gibberish language of marketing speak.
Just like French is the language of love this is the dialect of fools, where stupid people can say something and give the appearance of being clever. I don't know if they have actually conducted any tests on this but I believe if a normal person is subjected to this language over the course of months they become violent. That would explain the voices in my head.
One particularly quintessential Chinese advertising experience is working with a celebrity. You name the product and there's usually a famous face telling you how good it is. We had one: thankfully, an established star and not someone who had recently made good and was still dealing with new celebrity. This added another layer of approvals to the process as his people needed to be constantly assured we were treating his image correctly.
Celebrities are ubiquitous in the ad scene, as for many marketers it's a short-hand to create some sort of trust and familiarity by proxy. Sure, that happens everywhere but in a culture that has been drastically interrupted and then forced to catch up with the outside world that need to relate is multiplied. Nobody knows who to turn to in order to lead the way, so that's where the seemingly endless stream of Hong Kong and Taiwan pop idols come in.
Well, at least we used our celebrity with his knowledge, which is not necessarily the case here. So along with piracy of music and movies, there are also no qualms in knocking-off a person's image.
There have been cases in the past where Hollywood stars have been flogging products on television without their knowledge. Bad enough at the best of times, even worse if you have been chosen as the face for erectile dysfunction medication. I suppose if it works for sports stars (and as a bonus it apparently also helps them on the football field) it will work for me. So tune in next month and I'll let you know how well my erectile football goes.
I've also wandered what Angelina Jolie would have made of her face endorsing a local clothing store. Not a brand, just a shop. But she has a way to go until she matches the heights of Liv Tyler, going one better and having a chain of shoe stores named after her.
Fortunately for our star we opted not to take an old publicity shot of him, place it on the body of a monkey and pass it off as a the result of a wonder drink. Actually, that may have looked better than the end result. Oh well, next time.
And so, this is where I find myself, trapped in a bubble of lunacy within the bigger 'we're not in a recession so pass the Moet' bubble of Shanghai. In time both will burst and I can go back to working my 59.5 hours and the timesheet reminder doesn't give me a hard time anymore.
