China's Ban on the Use of Pigs in Advertising

NPR's Louisa Lim had a great piece on Morning Edition today about China's recent ban on pigs in advertising on CCTV, the state-run broadcaster. Interestingly, it's not about cheapening the image of the pig in the run-up to the Year of the Pig, but an effort "to avoid conflicts with ethnic minorities," in this case, the 20 million Chinese Muslims. Global corporations operating in China, like Coca-Cola, have created different advertisements in response to this edict. In one Coke ad described in Lim's report, a cute piglet struggles to get home for Chinese New Year; the ad shown in Muslim areas features a panda instead. You can read (or listen to) this excellent article here. The image to the left (taken by Lim) is of a commemorative bag containing New Year's snacks.