Not The Greatest

I recently learned something interesting about China's advertising policy. I learned this during a meeting with a fairly large client who is making their debut in China next month. Apparently, they had to change their advertisement from stating "The World's Largest ____ Store" to "The World's ____ Store." That's because Chinese censorship policy will not allow the use of superlative hyperboles in advertising.

This got me thinking about all U.S. superlative hyperbolic claims in advertisement and branding. Superlatives are as American as apple pie. I mean let's take a quick look at a few:

Barnum & Bailey's would go from "The Greatest Show on Earth" becomes "A Show on Earth"

"Mission: Impossible" becomes "Mission: Difficult"

"CNN. The most trusted name in news." becomes "CNN. A trusted name in news."

All those claims of "the most powerful truck in its class," would have to be changed to the "a powerful truck in its class."

OK, time to get really dorky:

The legendary rock band, KISS could no longer open their show as "The hottest band in the world!" but "A hot band in the world!"

The Avengers would no longer be "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," but merely "Earth's Mighty Heroes"

Captain Marvel would no longer be "The World's Mightiest Mortal," but merely "A World's Mighty Mortal."

Anyway, I'm sure there are so many more. But this is all I can think of at this hour.

Oh yeah, one more: Muhammad Ali could no longer be "The Greatest of All Time," but perhaps "A Great One in Time." Or he would have to say, "I am not the Greatest!" What fun is that?!?