A student at The British School of Nanjing is starring in a new television commercial for the world’s fifth largest construction machinery business.
Carol Potgieter, in year 5 at BSN, appears with her father and others in the new video promotion for the XCMG Group (Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group – 徐工集团), based in northern Jiangsu. In the storyline, Carol concludes that her father is in fact a super hero, after learning that his job involves lifting extremely heavy objects. Indeed, the crown jewel in the XCMG product range is an all-terrain crane, reputed as “The World No.1 Crane” and capable of lifting a staggering 4,000 tons, often deployed in the erection of wind farms or petro-chemical installations.
On the global stage, in 1995 XCMG formed a joint-venture with Caterpillar Inc., but sold its remaining 15.87 per cent stake in Caterpillar Xuzhou Ltd. back to Caterpillar in 2010. Two years later, XCMG acquired a 52 percent stake in the privately owned German machinery manufacturer Schwing for an undisclosed amount.
With a creative developed by XCMG themselves, and an overall aim for the TVC of amassing more followers on social media, Carol was recommended to the company by a friend and then chosen for the advertisement from among nine shortlisted families. The shooting for the commercial took two days in an employee’s friend’s house and the XCMG headquarters, both in Xuzhou.
When asked about her favourite aspect of the commercial shooting experience, Carol told Nanjng Expat, “I liked the part where I am sitting on my dad’s shoulders and he is walking past the tractors”.
Despite the exciting novelty of the experience, Carol’s legs remain firmly planted on the ground, as she revealed she has no plans to take a burgeoning acting career any further, while saying that she thinks she looks much better in real life; “I don’t usually put on makeup [and] I didn’t like the whole camera thing”.
She may have masterfully seen through the superficial nature of television advertising, yet Carol remains 100 percent convinced by her Dad’s status as a super hero; “because he’s my dad, and he’s a helicopter pilot”.
Good enough for us too, Carol. Super hero, he is.
