A prominent poster that was once displayed on an advertising billboard in Shanghai has aroused a lot of discussion on the Internet of late, largely due to its use of vague doublespeak.

Uploaded onto the Internet, the advert - which was formerly located in a downtown shopping center - seemingly said 做爱的上海人 which means "zuo ai de Shanghai ren" in Chinese characters. This phrase could be interpreted in two different ways: with a pause after the first character, the slogan says "being a Shanghainese with love." However, it could also read as "being a Shanghainese making love" if you put the pause after the third character. Unsurprisingly, the advert was photographed, posted online and forwarded innumerable times.

The advert has recently become a talking point after many media outlets picked up on it and posted it on their official microblogs. Cue the expectant criticism, decrying how such a "dirty" and "indecent" advertisement ever made the light of day in the first place.

The truth of the matter, however, is a lot more prosaic. The vast majority of people have only viewed this "controversial" advert online. And it is only in cyberspace that it is controversial, because this advert has been doctored using photoshop or similar technology. Some clever wag has altered the original slogan, 做可爱的上海人, by removing the character 可, and turning it into 做爱的上海人. By removing just one character, the original meaning has been transformed completely.

And what is unsurprising is that the new version of this advert has become far more popular than the original ever was. What is worrying is that the people who affected outrage at this poster actually believed that the online version of the advert was the original. People saw this blog posting, believed it was real and then told other people how outraged they were by this. The person who doctored the original photo, meanwhile, was sitting pretty while his handiwork aroused controversy up and down the country.

What is even more ridiculous is that certain people criticized the poster as typical of the "vulgarity" of Shanghai people.

There is an old saying that "the camera never lies." But in the age of digital technology, this age-old truism has been undone. In cyberspace you can create any reality you wish to. And online users need to learn to distinguish between reality and fantasy.