The campaign kicks off Tuesday with an extended 150-second spot that will run during the NBC series "America's Got Talent."This sounds supremely stupid. I mean, the movie itself sounds bad enough. In short, Jet Li stars as an ancient Chinese emperor who returns from the dead, along with the region's legendary terra cotta warriors, to rule the world. It seems to be playing up all sorts of mystical, ancient Asian stereotypes. Yay.
The spot, which also will be cut into variations ranging from 10 seconds to two minutes for NBC Uni's cable networks and in-theater pods, utilizes special effects that fuse Olympic footage with "Mummy" scenes.
One such moment includes a backflip by one of the film's stars, Michelle Yeoh, who morphs into a gymnast on a balance beam. In another, a fight between stars Brendan Fraser and Jet Li is transported to fisticuffs in a boxing ring.
As if Americans didn't already have some really wrong, backward ideas about China—this campaign certainly isn't going to help. I thought this summer's Olympic games were going to the world's introduction to modern China. Instead, for American TV audiences, it will be equated with Brendan Fraser kicking Chinese mummy ass. But hey, they need to sell those movie tickets. Fraser's gotta get paid, y'all.
