Chinese studio admits psychedelic propaganda video made ‘with a little help from our US friends’
US advertising firm works with Fuxinglushang Animation Studio - thought to be linked to Communist authorities - on animated video about China’s 13th five-year plan, which has gone viral
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The Chinese producer of a slick music video which used psychedelic images to promote Communist planning, said on Thursday it had a little help from its friends – a US advertising agency.
The shadowy Fuxinglushang Animation Studio, believed to have links to Communist authorities, produced an animated clip about China’s 13th five-year plan policy blueprint, which went viral after being released on state media this week.
In it, four cartoon characters – including a David Bowie lookalike – travel through a mint-green and fuchsia dreamscape atop lily pads, China’s Great Wall and a Volkswagen bus.
“Every five years in China, man,” they sing in the chorus. “They make a new development plan. The time has come for number 13, shi-san-wu [13-five], that’s what it means! ...
“Wanna know what China’s gonna do? Best pay attention to the shi-san-wu!”
The shi-san-wu abbreviation refers to the forthcoming blueprint for the economic and social plans covering 2016-20, which was discussed during a four-day meeting in the capital, which ended on Thursday.
But the music video was aimed at an international audience.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing-based Fuxinglushang studio said the China unit of the BBDO advertising agency, part of the American Omnicom Group, assisted with the project.
“In the process, we continuously coordinated and cooperated [with BBDO],” spokeswoman Li Jinyan said.
The Shanghai office of BBDO declined to comment, but an employee confirmed that the studio was a client.
Its New York-based parent company, Omnicom, is one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing agencies.
BBDO has worked with several big-name brands and companies around the world, including Barbie, Gatorade and ExxonMobil.
Fuxinglushang’s name could mean “the road to rejuvenation” in Chinese, or be an indirect reference to a street in the capital where state broadcaster China Central Television has an office.
It has a history of producing glossy clips for China’s ruling Communist Party aimed at foreign audiences, and the latest video was released in English with Chinese subtitles.
A rubber duck, disembodied lips, mannequins with lightbulb heads – even physicist Albert Einstein – make appearances in the three-minute video, as does what appears to be the Death Star from George Lucas’ Star Wars films.
“This is a very elevated and distant subject and we wanted everyone to be able to understand it, so we wanted to do it in a light way like a song,” Li said.
She added that the makers of the music video were surprised that it received so much attention.
“We didn’t think the video would be this popular ... it is quite strange,” she said.
The version posted on the YouTube channel of the official Xinhua news agency has been viewed more than 120,000 times, but reaction has been mixed.
“It looks like their research on how to appeal to the West came from studying the propaganda portrayed in Hollywood movies set in dystopian societies,” one comment said.
“Then they did acid for inspiration.”
