Ad barrage by China coincides with Hu visit

I must have missed it when the China ad account went up for a review. The pluses: an enormous client that's on its way to dominating its category. The minuses: the client has historically been quite demanding. China's State Council Information Office tapped Shanghai Lintas to buff up its image. Lintas is taking a pretty old-fashioned approach in an ad campaign that coincides with Premier Hu Jintao's visit to Washington to meet with President Obama: It hired a famous director (Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies coordinator Gao Xiaolong), got a bunch of celebs and bought out a bunch of Times Square ad space.