- GWM appears to have blatantly copied a poster promoting the Range Rover Sport.
- The boss of GWM says the company will accept financial responsibility for the blunder.
Some Chinese car manufacturers have a long and storied history of, ahem, taking heavy design ‘inspiration’ from some Western models, occasionally to the point of straight-out plagiarism and copyright infringement. For the most part, Chinese brands have started to shake this reputation in recent years, but it seems Great Wall Motor (GWM) still has some way to go.
The brand recently released a promotional poster for its new Wey V9X SUV, and it immediately drew comparisons to the promo that Land Rover shot for the Range Rover Sport last year. Clearly aware of the firestorm it had created, the boss of GWM was quickly forced to apologise on Chinese social media.
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In the original photo, a well-dressed Asian man poses next to a black Range Rover Sport, outstretching his hand towards the hood. Visible behind him is smoke and bright red lights. The image released by GWM is virtually identical.
In the place of the Land Rover is the new Wey V9X, also pictured from the side. In its photo, an Asian man, also dressed in black, looks at the hood with his arm outstretched. In the back, there’s smoke and red lights. The image is so similar that even the Wey’s headlights can be seen shining on the man, just as they are in the original.
WEY V9X
GWM Knows It Messed Up
While it’d perhaps be excusable for GWM to have taken some inspiration from a promotional campaign of a competitor, the similarities are indefensible. Taking to social media, GWM chairman Wei Jiangjun admitted the image had been plagiarized and apologized.
“After verification, the poster was indeed plagiarized,” he said in Mandarin and translated to English by IT-Home. “There can be no justification. Here I apologize to Land Rover, to the designer of the original poster, and to my friends online who trusted me. Great Wall Motors and I are also willing to take full legal and financial responsibility for this.”
There’s no word on whether Land Rover plans to launch legal action against GWM, but it seems it’d be logical to do so, particularly after Wei said the marque is willing to pay for the plagiarism.
