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I interpreted the 2nd character “lin” as “woods”. “Lin” in Chinese is trees, not just a few trees but quite a large number of them. So in English, clusters of trees is “woods”. Again, quoting dictionary.com:
- “woods”: a large and thick collection of growing trees.
In Chinese, we use “da sheng lin” as “jungle”, “sheng lin” or “shu lin” as “forest”, so I interpreted the singular term of “lin” as “woods”
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The 3rd character by itself is “wood” in Chinese. There is no argument on that. However, to read in the context of this advertisement, the word “wood” represents “tree”. My intention of this post is interpret the meaning of this ad. Therefore I used the word “tree” as that’s the underlying meaning.
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The last character is actually the Chinese character of “mu” (wood) without the left and right “bie”(stroke). It became a cross It is not a Chinese font of “shi” (ten). The vertical line of “shi” should be at the centre of the horizontal line and not so high up like what’s was shown in the ad. Therefore it should not be read as “shi” (ten). The cross is a symbolic as we know Jesus died up there. However, he resurrects 3 days later. The underlying message is all is not lost if we now made the effort to save the trees and prevent further unnecessary deforestation.

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Hi Ken
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll have to check when this is made.

Thank you
Vincent

P/S: Paul, great comment. Good ads should not shadow the intended message or brand. Sometime, creative aims to showcase how level of creativity, yet killing the original intention of ads: Selling more to more people.

a lot of creativity, zero efficiency (so far).

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Hi Walter
Religious issues aside, it also depends on how strong a person thinks and feels about conservation. I support the conservation and green movement and would contribute as best as I can towards a healthier earth. So when I saw this ad, it hit me straight and hard. I was emotionally moved.

First, its significance may not resonate with largely Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist Chinese. While most people would have heard or read about the crucifix, it is more of a Roman form of punishment in the old days.

Second, and I speak about this as a Christian too, the cross is a symbolism of life rather than death. The empty cross shows that Christ has risen from His death on the crucifix, which is why it is empty.

Cultural sensitivity, especially in matters relating to religion, is a very important component of successful advertising. While this ad scores in terms of branding and awareness, it may not necessarily do as well in terms of emotional connection and conviction.

Well, that’s my view anyway. Keep up the splendid work meanwhile on these ads!

Have you heard of http://www.blogactionday.org/? Might be something you would be interested in participating in. Our whole M-Network blogging network is participating.

Now off to read some more of your articles!

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Hey Bokjae
Chinese language is indeed beautiful. I’m effectively bilingual and I sometimes read a book in it’s original language and then read the translated version to see if the essence are kept. Some translators can captured that effortlessly. But this ad, I doubt it can be replicated in the English language.

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Hi Keeyit
Glad you like it too. And yes, it is indeed not too late. Don’t like the idea that the future generation sees no more of the graceful polar bears…

I like the Ads very much. Creative !

We experience a large degree of natural change in our planets. But it is still not too late to do our parts to save our planets.