It's really a tough job for automakers doing marketing and sales in China, where competition is acute and customers have little loyalty. They have tried a range of gimmicks in recent years.

But there should be a moral bottom line.

Unfortunately, a Buick dealership in the northeastern city of Shenyang used the tragedy of a two-month-old infant to tout its cars last week on Weibo - China's equivalent of Twitter. And Hyundai Motor followed suit.