Marketers run into trouble

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2007 | by Gary Stoller

Advertising agencies rolling out international campaigns without checking the cultural implications of their text or imagery have created some disasters.

*Nike apologized in 2004 when the Chinese government banned an advertisement showing NBA star LeBron James defeating a computer-generated kung fu fighter, two dragons and a Chinese woman. Chinese consumers and government officials said the ad offended national dignity and culture.

*A year earlier, Japanese automaker Toyota apologized for an ad campaign that showed a stone lion saluting a Toyota Prado. Prado translates to "domineering" in Chinese. Stone-carved lions are on the Marco Polo Bridge, southwest of Beijing.

Japan launched an invasion of China there in 1937, and the bridge has become a...