Chinese selling t-shirts, L.A. style

Nothing like a little Western influence to interest Chinese teenagers. A viral ad campaign on Tudou, the Chinese version of YouTube, has generated five million hits since March for the fashion brand Semir. The six videos were shot in Los Angeles. From Scene Asia:

"Teenagers in China [attach] an aspirational value to youth culture in the West," explained Pully Chau, chairman of Draftfcb, the Chinese advertising company hired by Chinese fashion brand Semir to create the campaign. "Youth culture in the West is more encouraging of self-expression. It's a kind of mental escape. If we had produced this in Shanghai, it would have been different."

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The ad agency Draftfcb, which has offices in Shanghai and Qingdao, produced the videos for Semir's Tee line of graphic T-shirts (which start at 99 yuan, or about $15). Each ad ends with the tagline "Everything can be Tee." Originally, the agency had planned to shoot the videos in New York, but a blizzard forced the Chinese creative team to move the shoot to Los Angeles. "Our client thought New York was the ultimate in sophistication. But L.A. was wonderful," says Ms. Chau.