06.03.07
Target Marketing to Fuzhou’s ‘Other’ Barbershop Employees
The dormitory in which most of the barbershop employees live is located in a residential community just a block away from the shop. The community has small mom and pop, restaurants, and a playground for children. They also have one of those ‘other’ barbershops…the kind which has the red light, and the pretty girls standing by the door, and where they don’t actually cut any hair.
Every day when we walk to the dormitory for dinner I pass this other barbershop. These kinds of establishments are quite commonplace in China, but what I found more interesting are the billboard advertisements strategically placed directly in front of the barbershop door.
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You probably wouldn’t guess it by looking at the woman in this picture, but this is a sign for a “pain-free abortion.” The cost is 300 RMB (approx $40 USD). Maybe it is just me, but the message I get from this sign is “Yippeee!!! Abortion can be fun!!!”
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You don’t need to read Chinese to figure out the meaning of this one. It’s Fuzhou’s latest 3000 kuai boob job. My Chinese friends often reafirm to me that “China is not as open sexually as the United States.” While this blanket statement certainly has some truth to it, one would be hard pressed to find such advertisements (not to mention the “barber shops” ) in American residential areas where the inhabitants are primarily families with small children. China sure has progressed from the old days of Socialism.…now they’re even selectively marketing to prostitutes!
Jeremy Yeh
said,
June 3, 2007 at 3:11 pm
yeah,china aint that socialistic no more. seems that this country is in some kinda a transition.
Chris
said,
June 3, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Indeed, it seems that are just as many of the pink light “special” barbershops as there are the regular hair cutting kind. Especially in Suzhou, where there seems to be a really high number of them. You can’t spit there without hitting a den of sin.
But that first poster is damn funny. Abortion is fashionable!
All of these posters seem to have the same color scheme too.
Rene
said,
June 3, 2007 at 8:08 pm
There was a recent article in the NY Times that talked about the growing number of abortions among teenagers or 20-somethings in China. Some girls reported having had 8+. So yeah it is kind of fashionable. And also kind of sad regardless of whether you are pro-choice or pro-life. There isn’t a lot of talk about the damage that abortion can do the girl’s reproductive tract. I know some students who have had abortions and it’s not quite as painless as this advertisement would have you believe.
Here’s the article, in case anyone’s interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/world/asia/13abortion.html
China Law Blog
said,
June 4, 2007 at 10:17 am
The boob job ads are in just about every Shanghai taxi. I keep thinking there is an arbitrage opportunity here.
Jenn
said,
June 11, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I bet they have some specialized ads around KTV places too.
Ridiculous.
venny theresia
said,
March 13, 2010 at 1:24 am
Maybe because Chinese Government rules one child for every family