Singles Day: Kevin Spacey appears in Alibaba advert for burner phones and M&Ms

Alibaba has already beated its 2014 Singles Day sales record with $9.3bn clocked up in first 12 hours

(Netflix)

Alibaba founder Jack Ma came good on promises that the White House would show up for Singles Day when an advert appeared online featuring Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, from the presidential series House of Cards.

"Good evening to the people of China, I am the 45th president of the United States, Frank J. Underwood," Kevin Spacey says from behind the white house desk.

"I wanted to take a moment to say hello to all of you out there and wish you a happy Singles Day. If this Singles Day is the excuse you have been waiting for to spoil yourself with online shopping, then I must say I'm more than a little jealous."

Spacey - or Underwood - recommends that shopppers visit Tmall, Alibaba's main shopping platform, to buy:

• A burner phone - or ten
• "Presidential" M&Ms
• A replica of Underwood’s ring 
• A presidential desk
• His favourite disguise, including glasses, a trench coat and a hat

He goes on to say that there are too many firewalls in the White House for him to take advantage of the "amazing deals you'll see online", in what could be the first known example of a Chinese advert joking about internet restrictions in China.

Singles Day, on 11/11, was traditionally the day single people treated themselves to gifts in China. It became an online shopping phenomenon in 2008 when Alibaba encouraged sellers to slash prices for a day.

Alibaba has already beaten its 2014 Singles Day sales record with $9.3bn clocked up in first 12 hours. Last year's total was $9.3bn.