Step inside the Bentley Motors showroom in Beijing and you enter an exclusive environment where, if you have to ask the price of the cars, then you can't afford them. That, though, is the point. 'Luxury', 'refinement' and 'heritage' are the key words in Bentley's advertising in China - and elsewhere.
Bentley, or Ben Li as it's known in China, sells more Arnage 728 cars - the most expensive model - in Beijing than anywhere else in the world. The cheapest version retails for 4.28 million yuan. The British-based company expects sales to increase by 20 per cent this year. Other elite brands like Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche all report booming sales, too.
The price of a Bentley may seem staggering in a country where the majority of people live on just over US$1,000 a year. But it pales into insignificance when compared to the US$220 billion in environmental damage that China suffers every year, according to government figures. That is 10 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product being burned away by the 31 million cars on the roads, and by the tens of thousands of manufacturing enterprises spewing out pollution - as they turn their owners into the millionaires who buy luxury items.
All of which creates a problem for the mainland media: it is profiting from the advertising boom that the luxury goods market has created, while it also pressures the government to curb the pollution that blights most of China's cities. Even the most lackadaisical reader could hardly fail to spot the contradiction between promoting consumption and advocating environmental protection.
But, with over 300,000 US-dollar millionaires on the mainland, selling opulence is big business. Advertising is the principal source of revenue for China's media outlets; CCTV alone expects to earn a record 10 billion yuan from commercials this year. By 2010, China will be the world's second-largest advertising market after the United States. New media - such as the internet, mobile phones and LCD televisions in airports, train stations and shopping malls - is increasingly important for advertisers, too.
According to the China Brand Strategy Association, the market for luxury items will grow at an annual rate of 25 per cent for the next four years, as brands like Cartier, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton continue to expand their China operations. The mainland is already the third-largest consumer of luxury goods in the world, and is expected to overtake Japan to become the second-largest by 2015.