May 9th, 2012Top StoryWatch Ferrari Desecrate An Ancient Chinese MonumentBy Benjamin Preston
A PR Ferrari offered an official apology to China, but Agence France Presse reported that Maranello's filmed wheel spinning stunt left tire marks on top of the 600-year-old Nanjing wall, possibly causing permanent damage to the Ming Dynasty-era monument. Showing off wealth and power are looked down upon in Communist China — indeed, they've covered it up at certain levels — so the prancing horse's romp atop the relic gave the Chinese government a good foothold for finger wagging, should it choose to engage in public moralizing. According to the BBC, public ire over Ferrari's disrespectful gesture toward China's rich history was exacerbated by reports that city officials rented out a section of the wall for filming, charging the local Ferrari dealership $12,000. City officials flatly denied the claim, although between China's reputation as less than transparent and Maranello's as a tightly controlled information machine, it will be difficult to know exactly what's going on. The bottom line is that a lot of people are pissed about what was essentially a high dollar version of a high school parking lot antic. Chinese officials shut down Ferrari's event, and Maranello is blaming the whole thing on the guy behind the wheel (although they did take advantage of filming the driver's supposedly irresponsible behavior). If you want to find out what Nanjing locals are are saying about the gaffe on the Chinese version of Twitter, you'll have to wait until Chinese censors unblock the word "Ferrari" from searches. (Hat tip to Juliana S!) |
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