# Chinese upset about condom ads showing Mao along with Hitler & OBL as evil sperm **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523 "2009-04-18T12:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/1 "2009-04-18T12:44:34Z")
[Ads here](http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/grey-condom-ads-doc-morris-pharmacies.html) Story here [Mao sperm ad angers Chinese](http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=29b1277c-bc68-42ca-9dd5-3dc45cdcf6fe) > [@](#): > > China’s official media and outspoken bloggers on Friday protested over a German advert promoting the use of condoms which shows revolutionary leader Mao Zedong as a sperm cell alongside Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/2 "2009-04-18T14:01:29Z")
Well of course they’re upset. Even top-end estimates only put five million deaths on Mao – well short of the six million on Hitler. Actually, going by that measure, OBL’s countrymen should be livid. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/3 "2009-04-19T04:13:06Z")
Uh, the 6 million figure on Hitler is just the Jews. His total body count is at least 10 million, probably 15 million, possibly as many as 25 million, and that’s not counting soldiers and civilians who died in “legitimate” war operations. 42 million people died in the war in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/4 "2009-04-19T08:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The Global Times newspaper said advertising agency Grey Worldwide, which made the safe sex advert for Doc Morris Pharmacies, had sent a letter of apology to the Chinese consulate in Frankfurt. Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world where people _didn’t_ apologise for insulting mass-murdering dictators to appease their degenerate supporters? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/5 "2009-04-19T09:03:45Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Well of course they’re upset. Even top-end estimates only put five million deaths on Mao – well short of the six million on Hitler. Top end would easily add one zero to your Mao figure. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-upset-about-condom-ads-showing-mao-along-with-hitler-obl-as-evil-sperm/493523/6 "2009-04-19T10:42:06Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world where people _didn’t_ apologise for insulting mass-murdering dictators to appease their degenerate supporters? That’s taking it a bit far. Chinese people have no illusions about Mao and _nobody_ looks back on the cultural revolution fondly. Anyone alive during that period bears the scars, and people are relatively frank when they talk about it. But Mao is still the founder of their country, and his contribution to modern China cannot be understated. Nobody has simple feelings about Mao, and plenty of people hate what he did. But without him modern China would not exist, and most Chinese people feel like modern China is a pretty good place. And because of a political tradition going back thousands of years, Chinese people do not consider the government and the country to be a different thing. We will gladly bash the president while knowing that we love America. But China doesn’t have this concept, and never has. The country cannot be separated from it’s leaders. So to say Mao shouldn’t have existed, to them, is very much like saying China shouldn’t exist. I’m sure you can understand why people who are proud of their country would take exception to this, even if they are not “degenerate supporters.”