UK’s Mirror release a story—“Fake brands shopping centre set to open in China“—that alleged an entire mall of knock-off brands that’s been making the Internet rounds for the last few days: ”McDnoald’s,” a fast-food joint, “Bucksstar Coffee,”—obviously!—a coffeehouse, and “Pizza Huh,” which is documented in a photograph that, to me, reads a little fake.
“City bosses are under pressure to ban the soon-to-be opened mall,” the story goes, “after pictures of the fake stores were leaked, causing uproar amongst angry consumers who feared they’d be ripped off.”
I’m the teeniest bit wary, just because of the pix, and also because this seems set to stir up a defensiveness about “our” Western brands that could fuel this weird economic rivalry with China that sometimes feels like the beginnings of a cold war, and also because there’s been a greater trend in Asia of late to simply bring in these Western brands, instead of pirate them, which is sad, and also, come on, “McDnoald’s?” but if it’s real I swear to god I will go there someday and spend a million real dollars and open up a McDnoald’s in my own neighborhood.
Tags: fake
