The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce believes so, and in an effort to relieve tensions between a growing affluent population and the millions of low-income farmers and blue-collar workers who still make up a large majority of the country, officials have banned outdoor advertisements promoting luxury products and ‘foreign’ goods.

This means words such as ‘supreme’, ’luxury’, ‘royal’ or ‘high-end’ will no longer be permitted to grace the buildings of the Beijing city scape. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see what new verbiage or techniques advertisers develop to differentiate their luxury goods – especially at a time when China is heading towards becoming the largest luxury goods market in the world.

I can already envision Mercedes’ next campaign: “Good car.”