It appears Barack Obama isn’t the only president having his image misappropriated by businesses in China. Profiteers have since decided being “all about the Benjamins” was too 1999. It’s now time to use a different person on American currency to represent wealth and prosperity: Ulysses S. Grant.
While at a grocery store near my apartment in Shanghai I came across the bottle of wine featured on your left. This Chinese wine company appears to have liberally borrowed from the same portrait used on the US 50 dollar bill.
Honestly, I’m a little confused by this. The Wine company, De Louissun, is part of a Sino-French winery cooperation but still use an American to represent it. Maybe they don’t know who it is and wanted to use it anyway?
From what I understand, there’s been a boon in the wine industry in China that’s coincided with the rise of the country’s middle class. Regardless, this label is kind of funny. I’ll have to write down the likely nonsensical English script behind Grant’s image when I got back to the grocery store.
