French car-maker Citroen has apologised to China for running a full-page advertisement in several Spanish newspapers featuring a poster of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pulling a wry face at a sporty hatch-back.

Under the Biblical quotation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's", the text talked up Citroen's position as a car sales leader in a bombastic tone. "It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops," the advertisement said. "We are once more going to put in motion all the machinery of our technological ability, in order to repeat in 2008 the successes obtained in previous years," it added.

The Mao poster is similar to the huge painting of the Great Helmsman gazing out over Beijing's Tiananmen Square, except that it has been distorted to show lips screwed up and eyes squinting. "The image has been wantonly distorted by the ad's designers. Mao looks very strange," Chinese state newspaper the Global Times observed on Tuesday.

The scowling Mao had infuriated Chinese Internet users who saw it as a slight, it said. "As a Chinese, I felt greatly insulted when seeing this ad," a posting on web portal Tianya said. "It is not only insulting Chairman Mao, but the whole Chinese nation." 

Whoopsie! At least it's taken the heat off Benetton.


Citroen assumed it was the scowl that the Chinese found offensive.