De Rucci
| De Rucci Healthy Sleep Co. | |||||||||||
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| File:DeRUCCIHeadquarters.jpg DeRUCCI headquarters in Dongguan China | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 慕思健康睡眠股份有限公司 | ||||||||||
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De Rucci Healthy Sleep Co.[1] (Chinese: 慕思; pinyin: Mùsī; Jyutping: mou6 si1) is a mattress company in China, headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong.[2]
History
[edit | edit source]Lin Jiyong and Wang Bingkun established the firm in 2004.[3] Its first offices were in Dongguan. It had 4,200 shops in China in 2020, as well as various showcase facilities outside of China.
Branding and controversy
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De Rucci previously claimed to have been founded in 1868 by a French-Italian man named Leonardo de Rucci.[3] De Rucci's advertising prominently showcases an unnamed European-looking man, a "Steve Jobs look-alike" who has been described as the "most famous face in China".[3] A Wall Street Journal investigation identified the man as John Timothy Dirstine (1943-2012), an American resident in China, and that De Rucci had signed an agreement with him in 2009 to use his image in advertising.[3]
In 2021 China Daily criticized the usage of his face to suggest a non-Chinese origin for the company.[1] The author of the article, Zhang Zhouxiang, stated "such blind worship is uncalled for in China now that it has become the world's second-largest economy."[4] David Fickling of Bloomberg News argued that the usage of the man of European origin and European-inspired branding reflected an internalized inferiority felt in China, similar to that felt by people in Japan in the mid-20th century, before the rise of the Japanese economy.[1]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- De Rucci (in Chinese)
- De Rucci Global
- De Rucci United States
- De Rucci Australia
