Here in the UK we are all familiar with the way that Government departments, quangos, health trusts, Health and Safety bureaucrats and numerous others spend large amounts of money propagandising and heckling the public about various kinds of behaviour.
From anti-smoking ads and the new campaigns being launched against middle class drinkers to those offensive posters run recently that implied most men are just a few beers away from rape, huge amounts of taxpayers' money pours into creative teams, ad agencies and billboard owners - often to very little effect.
It is reassuring in a way to know it is not just Britain where bureaucrats can't resist the urge to splurge other people's money on something glossy and hectoring. The People's Republic of China apparently has its own series of adverts, using the central character of a panda to put across various messages on familiar themes. My personal favourite is the warning against SARS (above), and a few more are reproduced below. You can see more at The First Post.
It is slightly depressing that the bureaucrats of a Communist dictatorship that makes extensive use of executions and salt mine slavery to suppress political and individual dissent can produce adverts that are more amusing and memorable than any churned out by Britain's apparatchiks.
Pictures by Zhao Bandi, images from China Art Book, edited by Uta Grosenick and Caspar H Schubbe (published by Dumont)
Click to see the full-sized image:
VIOLENCE
SMOKING
AIDS
