China’s Communist Party is “with you along the way”—that’s the catchphrase from a new advertisement for the party

Jan 2, 2014

You’re in Good Hands With the Communist Party

China’s Communist Party is “with you along the way”—that’s the catchphrase from a new advertisement for the party.

In a three-minute video that mysteriously appeared on the Internet in recent days, the Communist Party appears to be embarking on a fresh advertising campaign. The pitch: the party as your valuable partner.“On the road chasing our dreams, we walk side by side, sharing weal and woe, transcending differences and shaping the future together,” the video’s narrator says in English.

“The Communist Party of China is with you along the way.”

The video appears to be the latest effort by Chinese authorities to invoke soft power through video, though it’s impossible to verify who made it. No credits appear that might identify a producer, and no source is named on Youku, the video-sharing website where it was recently uploaded.

The most repeated word in the video—dream—makes clear who inspired the production: Xi Jinping.

The party chief and president, who makes a cameo around the two-minute mark, sparked a sensation by invoking the notion of a Chinese Dream after he came to power a little over a year ago. Variations on the word dream are repeated seven times in the video, far more than mention of the party itself. “Our peoples’ dreams are our goals,” it says.

In a new year greeting, Mr. Xi vowed to use soft power to promote “modern Chinese values, or socialist values with Chinese characteristics,” calling on mass media to do their part in displaying Chinese “charm to the world.”

China in recent years has increasingly used video to transmit its message: the government launched a feel-good campaign in 2011 onto screens high above New York’s Times Square. And the government mouthpiece China Central Television is pursuing an aggressive global expansion to distribute party-approved context to news events.

For some, having the party “with you along the way” might stir thoughts of the Internet’s Great Firewall and neighborhood watch committees.

Yet, instead of Orwell’s “1984,” the video hues closest to the sensibilities of Kumbaya invoked in advertising by  Western insurance companies: “You’re in good hands with Allstate,” “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” and even Prudential’s “Get a Piece of the Rock.”

At least one Chinese official has already taken the video on a road show, indicating a dose of official support.

The Beijing Youth Daily this week quoted a vice director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Li Jie, as saying he showed the video as a prologue to several events he hosted on a recent tour of Laos and Cambodia. The newspaper reported that Mr. Li’s catalogue for the trip also included another production that this year mysteriously hit the Internet in China, a cartoon that argued the Communist Party system is superior to democracies in picking capable political leaders.

The videos come as China’s president and party leader, Mr. Xi, has repeatedly demonstrated fresh efforts to connect directly with the nation’s population, including in recent days by eating buns at a regular restaurant.

He has indicated that breaks with party tenets are part of his strategy, including when he marked the 120^th birthday of Communist Party father Mao Zedong by citing a “new situation.”

Just the same, it’s probably safe to say that Mao, the author of unforgettable catchphrases likes like “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” might have written a party slogan somewhat beefier than “with you along the way.”

Mr. Xi will find the advertising world is choc-full of alternatives as future party slogans: Nike’s “Impossible is Nothing,” Timex’s “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” and even, “With a name like Sumckers it has to be good.”