Advertising the Year of the Horse

It’s almost the Year of the Horse (马年) in China, and you can see it in advertising all around China. Here are three examples from Shanghai:

The Year of the Horse in Advertising
This first one incorporates the traditional character (horse) into the design.

The Year of the Horse in Advertising
Using the word 马上 (literally, “on horseback,” it means “right away”) is the easy way to go.

The Year of the Horse in Advertising
This one uses the internet slang 神马 (literally, “god horse”), which is sometimes used in place of 什么 (“what”).

Happy Year of the Horse!

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John Pasden

John is a Shanghai-based linguist and entrepreneur, founder of AllSet Learning.

Comments

  1. loneranger Says: January 30, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    hi ho silver!

  2. […] in the next hour or so).  There’s a good round up of new year advertising slogans over on Sinosplice (I particularly like the TV ad for Suning, which features the god horse tapping people on the […]

  3. The best 马 pun I’ve seen so far was at Ditan Temple Fair: http://www.spittingdog.net/2014/02/02/money-on-a-horse/

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