Roasting topsy turvy
(The handy kitchen grill and roaster with Jackie Chan in tow: Suzhou, China)
Is there anything this man cannot endorse in China? Jackie Chan must have the best agent in Asia to be advertising such a wealth of products; roaster grills, iced tea (with his son), Ba Wang anti fall shampoo and a series of frozen dumplings – it’s almost enough to have a completely separate thread of posts. These are just the ones I’m aware of, so there surely could be more.
Ying’s mum was with us when we found this item in the Au Chan supermarket, which we have discovered sells absolutely everything except tea towels*. Ying and I fell about laughing and I began taking pictures. At this point, I believe she was slightly left behind in the continuing story of Jackie’s advertising exploits. The subtleties of Sino-western contrasts are not lost on me, as on the left, George almost punches the air with a boxer’s friendly boisterousness, whereas Jackie is poised as if to slice a roasted duck with his blade-like palms. Sometimes in China I feel like nothing can surprise me in the supermarket anymore, but I am constantly (and happily) proved wrong time after time.
*The topsyturvyness of a westerner’s view of China becomes clearer if I make the point that not in a single shop have we ever found a tea-towel, not even a thin hand towel we could pass off as an alternative. One may, however, purchase a Jackie Chan fronted George Foreman ‘lean mean fat reducing roasting machine’.
Jackie is doing a karate chop on a roast duck, that’s what that hand gesture means.
Tea towels harbour bacteria and we have kitchen towels that dispense from a box now, remember!
By the way, I just noticed something very interesting. You see that Chinese character in the red circle next to Jackie’s name? It means dragon, which is Jackie Chan’s Chinese stage name, “become a dragon” (he was not born with that name). Anyway, look closely and you will see that the word Jackie is in it. Clever, huh? He must have gotten some graphic designer to think up that one!
No he didn’t – he designed it himself while bored on the set of Tuxedo I think it was. Pen in hand he doodled the logo and it has been used ever since.
And he also endorses Mitsubishi, Canon, Dragon Shoes, and Oromin C drink. At least that is all I can think of right now.
Oh and his logo doesn’t just incorporate ‘Jackie’ but also the Chinese character for his name, as well as a dove for peace on the top left and various other elements
If you look here: http://www.jackiechandesign.com/outbrand.php
It gives you the explanation of the logo and all it’s elements.