Propaganda pig: Hong Kong icon McDull backs political reform – but without creator’s consent
One of Hong Kong’s most popular icons, the cartoon pig McDull, was used in an advertisement supporting the government’s political reform package without authorisation, the character’s creator confirmed.
One of Hong Kong’s most popular icons, the cartoon pig McDull, was used in an advertisement supporting the government’s political reform package without authorisation, the character’s creator confirmed on Friday.
The spotted the advertisement on a giant video screen outside the Kwok Wa Building on Hennessy Road in Wan Chai. The building is the former headquarters of pro-Beijing newspaper , which owns the advertising screen.
McDull was featured in a short slideshow about a recent article written by Zhang Xiaoming, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, which was published in and on May 4 arguing that the reform proposal will result in a “democratic and legitimate” universal suffrage system for the chief executive election in 2017.
A similar series of 12 slides was also posted on the liaison office’s website but was removed this afternoon two hours after the Post called to enquire about them. The liason office could not be reached for comment.
The image of McDull, the loveable piglet who struggles to understand how the world works, was used in six of the slides.
In one of them, entitled “The chief executive universal suffrage system has Hong Kong characteristics”, McDull dismisses the pan-democrats’ criticism of the reform proposal by saying “Pocketing the package is not pocketing it forever, it’s better than getting nothing!”
In the next slide, the piglet makes a rather vulgar comment which roughly translates as “There was no bloody democracy in the days of [British colonial] governors!”
In other slides, McDull says: “There’s ‘one country’ first before there are ‘two systems’”, and referring to the Electoral College system in the US, asks: “Why doesn’t the United States use the international standard?” and “Why do the pan-democrats lack the self-confidence of ‘getting out of the gate’ (becoming a candidate in the public election)?”
Illustrator Alice Mak Ka-bik told the she was unaware that her creation was used in the pro-Beijing propaganda.
“I have no idea why McDull appears [there]. I have not authorised to use McDull in any way,” Mak said, but she stopped short of asking for the ads to be taken down, saying that she usually does not comment on such matters and hopes to “have more time to look into the case first”.
After the images were taken down from the liaison office’s website, a spokeswoman for ’s “screen media team” told the Post: "The ad we used was only a work from the internet. We contacted the company with the image’s copyright and reached an understanding.” It was believed she was referring to Mak’s company.
The last of the slides showed a link to a Facebook page entitled “Crisis Encyclopedia”, which appeared to be the creator of the ads.
The page contained about 30 others slides and two slideshows that were also shown on the Kwok Wa Building video screen. McDull’s image was not used in those works.
The contacted the page’s administrator for comment, but received no reply.
In recent years, Mak and her team have authorised the use of their cartoon pigs, McMug and McDull in several government ads, including former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s animated Lunar New Year greeting clip in 2010.
In 2012, at the height of protests against the national education curriculum, the government’s critics created an “anti-brainwash” clip that featured McDull. But Mak endorsed the clip and said she “opposed brainwash education” too, referring to the curriculum.