I'm on my last night in China, spending it in Kowloon across the very short distance across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island. For those of you who have not seen the skyline of Hong Kong or haven't for some time, I've taken a picture here for you.
Every country, heck even city, has its own way of mega scale advertising which often times creates iconic images. San Francisco has the Transamerica Pyramid (does Transamerica still exist?). New York has the Met Life building with a big logo that I seem to recall replaced the Pan Am logo that used to be there. In Silicon Valley, if a company does not have a dozen buildings with logos on them, Company buildings, not just billboards, then it really isn't real yet. Here in Hong Kong, its about the backlit brand name at the top of a building.
Granted, there are a few now higher tech displays, Times Square types, but, they are few. In many respects, I'm reminded of the headbands I saw on a tennis player at the U.S. Open with a big Nike swoosh right in the middle of her forehead in every photo of her match. Branding at its finest, I suppose.
Here, I'm struck by the brand names. What do you see in common with these names: Canon, Olympus, Hitachi, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Epson? I have a number of theories, but, none hold up to any scrutiny. But, I'm wondering, where is HP, Dell, Apple or any of the other hardware companies? You can draw your own conclusions, but, one thing is for sure. From across the water, the skyline looks a lot like the inside of a Best Buy store, only way more humid.
In case you're wondering, all these lights shut down around midnight. It's not quite 24/7 marketing.
