The latest short film from F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi: “Leica – The Hunt” I posted here on the blog a few days ago made the Chinese government ban the word “Leica” from social media… because the video refers to the famous “Tank Man” photo taken in Tiananmen Square (the videos keep being removed from YouTube one after another):
Reuters writes:
The hashtag “Leica insulting China” surfaced on China’s Twitter-like Weibo late on Thursday, before being censored. Users left hundreds of comments on Leica’s official Weibo account criticizing the company for the video.
“Get out of China, you are done,” one user posted.
Others cheered the video as daring ahead of the 30th anniversary of the crackdown on June 4, but the majority of posts were scrubbed from Chinese social media by Friday and the comments section on two of its most recent Weibo posts were disabled.
Users were also prevented from posting messages using Leica’s English or Chinese name with warnings that they were violating laws, regulations or the Weibo community guidelines.
Here is what Leica spokeswoman Emily Anderson said to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post:
“Leica Camera AG must therefore distance itself from the content shown in the video and regrets any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn.”
The company has taken measures to ensure that the film is not shared on Leica’s own social media channels, she added.
