What do Taylor Swift and communist China have in common? Exploiting the Super Bowl.
See of all the conspiracy theories in the world right now, perhaps the most probable is that Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is manufactured for publicity. On the one hand, it could simply be to boost the NFL’s sagging ratings leading into the Super Bowl – on the other it could an orchestrated stunt to help deeply unpopular Joe Biden going into the 2024 election.
CNN made a tirade against that “far-right” theory last week, though they’re probably just jealous that Swift isn’t helping their utterly hopeless ratings.
Talking about Swift is a fun change of pace this time of year. No one has genuinely cared about the Super Bowl itself in recent memory, with more widespread attention for the half-time show or the commercials.
This may be the only time during the year that TV watchers actually look forward to the commercials on TV. As the biggest marketing line item of the year for many companies, they spare no expense pouring cash into high-production advertisements knowing that this is the biggest audience of the year for their product.
The price tag for the airtime is a staggering $7 million for a 30 second spot – but it’s worth it. Not only do Super Bowl ads allow a company to reach 100 million pairs of eyeballs, but everyone else who sees it discussed later on the news or social.
Even decades later, some examples of memorable ads are the one with LeBron James talking to his younger self, John Travolta dancing, the “Where’s The Beef” hamburger ad, and the Mean Joe Greene tossing his jersey to a kid. This year likely will have a few that people will be talking about on Monday and beyond.
One Chinese company is trying to take advantage of this opportunity to paint a rosy picture of their company is the Chinese version of Amazon: Temu.
A subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Pindouduo, Temu is advertising during the Super Bowl. As a result, Members of Congress have written a letter to the President & CEO of Paramount Global and CBS Entertainment, the broadcasters of the Super Bowl. Just as Nazi-loyal companies exploited Jewish forced labor in the Holocaust (like in Schindler’s List), Temu is alleged to use Uyghurs in Chines concentration camps to on the products they’ll be advertising during the Super Bowl.
Journalistic ethics require us to say that Temu “allegedly” uses slave labor.
An oppressed Muslim minority in a country with no scruples, Uyghurs are in a horrible situation. Saudi Arabia is more than happy to cozy up to China, despite its behavior toward fellow Muslims, because Arabs don’t consider the Turkic ethnic group fellow Muslims. For that matter, neither even do the Turks.
And Corporate America, having long since forgotten the America part, is delighted to sell out to China too.
Just about the only friends the Uyghurs have in the world is the Republican Party. Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) wrote a letter rebuking the NFL, arguing that “Congress, through the House Select Committee on the Chinese Community Party, has uncovered alarming findings that indicate Temu has a pattern of noncompliance towards illicit products entering the United States market. Specifically, Temu ‘does not have any system to ensure compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).” In the letter joined by Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Pete Stauber (R-MN), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), James Baird (R-IN), and Mike Carey (R-OH) cited the House Select Committee’s finding that “this all but guarantees that shipments from Temu containing products made with forced labor are entering the United States on a regular bases” in violation of the law.
Sportswashing is not an uncommon way for nations to improve reputations hammered by their misdeeds. The 1936 Olympic Summer Games put on by Nazi Germany, the 2002 Beijing Olympic Winter Games put on by communist China, the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and so on.
Western countries have spent the last 20 years opening up to China, whether it’s welcoming the communist country into international organizations or outsourcing business operations there. The hope had always been that the Chinese government would be as interested in Western values as it is in the wealth created by those values. While doubtless many Chinese citizens are – like, say, the Uyghurs and other slaves – its government is not.
Massive corporations like the NFL like to pretend how much they care about diversity, the environment, and whatever, but if they had an ounce of morality they’d decouple from China and tell them that we are never getting back together.
Jared Whitley is a longtime DC politico, having worked in the US Senate, White House, and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult business school in Dubai.
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