As the soundtracks of Christmas adverts are still echoing in our heads, we’re already facing a new wave of holiday campaigns for Chinese New Year. This Spring Festival, we are starting to see more western brands showcasing CNY films, investing in big celebrities and heavyweight collaborations as they finally seem to understand the importance of this cultural event in the adverting market, like Nike, who surprisingly, up until now has never done a Chinese New Year campaign. As common with CNY advertising, the films have sweet, emotional, touching and funny approaches to family relationships, generational conflict and gender equality, with even some tackling LGBTQ rights this year.
圣诞广告的音乐还在耳畔回响，春节活动的浪潮却已来袭。今年春节，随着有更多西方品牌终于看到这个文化事件在广告市场上的重要性，他们开始相继推出影视广告，大量采用名人和各种重要合作，比如耐克，第一次推出春节活动，其影视广告展示了春节广告共通的要素，用甜蜜、动情、感动、有趣来表现家庭纠纷、代沟、性别平等，甚至LGBTQ相关话题。
We’ve selected just 6 commercials for you ：
我们甄选了6部精彩纷呈的广告片：
The French perfume and cosmetics house Lancôme opted for the eastbound formula. It’s a celeb-heavy one, featuring Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Kris Wu. But the real protagonist of the advert is the red color, appearing in its many hues in clothes, make-up, lanterns, and fireworks. The film starts in Paris, where an arched bridge over the Seine becomes a magical portal and transports Seyfried and Collins instantly to Shanghai. Here, overtaken by the excitement in the streets, they join the crowds on the festivities. Chris Wu observes everything (unwillingly, one would say) from a luxurious balcony party. It’s a visually stunning composition that sends a clear message: a happy Chinese New Year from Paris to the world.
法国香水及化妆品品牌兰蔻选择向东方进发，邀请Amanda Seyfried、Lily Collins和吴亦凡三位名人拍摄春节广告，但该广告的真正主角可以说是“红色”，在演员服装、化妆以及灯笼、焰火的颜色来展示。广告中，巴黎塞纳河上的拱桥开始好像一扇魔力大门，将Seyfried和Collins带到上海，这里的大街小巷都充满着欢乐，于是她们也加入了庆祝节日的人群；此时身处奢华阳台派对的吴亦凡则漫无心迹地看到外面的场面。这支广告视觉上非常丰富，清晰地传递出这个信息：从巴黎到全球，祝您新年幸福。
Nike’s first-ever Chinese new year spot makes a joke about a girl that year after year, out of politeness, tries to refuse her aunt’s gift of a red packet. The aunt is winning the “war” until the girl gets a shiny new pair of red Nike kicks; that’s when things change. Following a hilarious Mexican standoff moment, powered by the new pair of shoes, the girl runs away to escape her aunt’s altruistic intentions. Whenever she wears the shoes, she wins. Her luck spun again with the invention of online red packets (how could you run away from those?). Then, she turns into a woman with her own family; it’s now her time to offer the red pack to her dear aunt. Try guessing who’s wearing the shoes now. Simple, witty, and tender — not bad for a first-timer.
耐克的第一支春节广告拿春节红包的习俗开起了玩笑——女孩从小到大的每年春节都出于客气而躲避姑姑的红包，直到有一天她穿上了一双耀眼的红色耐克跑鞋，才成功逃脱；这就是事件扭转的开始。在新鞋的助力下，女孩在逃脱姑姑的好意过程中，让二人处于非常好笑的僵持不下的状态。只要她穿着耐克鞋，就能赢。后来由于网络红包的发明，她再度获得红包祝愿。然而，当女孩长大为女人并有了自己的家庭，便轮到她给姑姑红包。猜猜这次谁穿了跑鞋。该广告简单、诙谐、温情——对第一次做春节广告来说不失为不错的尝试。
Apple once more chose a moving campaign, shot on iPhone 11, and inspired by true stories of everyday life in great China. Set in Chongqing, the eight-minute-long film tells the story of a grandmother, a mother, and a granddaughter, and the conflicting ideas of the first two. The film typifies a leap in the generational mindset in China. It shows that, despite it all, there’s still great importance given to family ties. It was directed by Theodore Melfi, from the Hollywood movie Hidden Figures and it had Lawrence Sher, from Joker, as the cinematographer. The lead actress is the Chinese celebrity Zhou Xun, who admitted that a sense of freedom comes from being filmed by an iPhone instead of the usual bigger cameras. For the skeptics, the team released an additional behind the scenes film, proving that they indeed used only the smartphone’s three-lens camera. They were aided, of course, by a tone of gear such as drones, stabilizers, reflectors, and lights.
苹果再次选择了一个动情的广告，使用iPhone 11拍摄，从日常中国人的真实故事中获得启发。故事背景设在重庆，8分钟的影片讲述了一段外祖母、女儿和外孙女三人之间的故事，其中包括外祖母与女儿之间的观念冲突，其选择中国人的思想代沟，告诉我们，不论如何，家庭关系仍然有着重要意义。该片由好莱坞电影《隐藏人物》的导演西奥多·梅尔菲执导，电影《小丑》的摄影师劳伦斯·谢尔担任摄影。主演周迅表示，用iPhone拍摄，相对传统摄像机，带给她一种自由感。为免除观众的疑虑，拍摄团队还特别发布了一支幕后花絮视频，表明他们的确仅使用了iPhone的三镜头摄像机，当然还借助了无人机、防抖手柄、反光板和灯光等很多其他工具。
Above all, what everyone is talking about (and praising) this season is the Tmall’s 20-second spot that features a same-sex couple arriving in the family home for the celebrations. While LGBTQ rights were a hot topic last year, it is still an infrequent theme in Chinese mainstream media. For gay people, this time of the year often means shielding one’s true self and maintain fake appearances for the sake of harmony and tradition. It is brave of the young couple in the story to defeat that, as it is brave of Tmall to acknowledge a cohort that’s also meaningful when it comes to consumption.
被大家一致讨论（和赞赏）的春节广告，是天猫疑似露出“同志”一起过年回家情节的20秒广告。去年热门的LGBTQ的话题，其实在中国主流媒体中还是少见的。对于同性恋，每年过年的时候，他们都要为了和谐和传统，遮掩真实的自己，假装出一些表现。在这个广告中，这对年轻同性情侣勇敢坦诚地面对这一切，就像天猫勇敢地承认，消费就要大手笔。
This spot for ICBC, which was masterfully produced by Stink, has attracted our eye by its array of dynamic shots, great art direction and an overall idea related to the Chinese Zodiac. ICBC is celebrating the new year with a series of Zodiac themed Union Pay cards, and it created a two-minute film that starts with the origins of the story and jumps into a frantic relay race. In a traditional shadow play, a Chinese deity announces that all animals should compete for a place in the pantheon. In the modern world, the Ox starts the race in true parkour-style, passing the stick along to the other animals, each one of the moving in radical ways (except for the Goat, who travels in a high-speed train, calmly reading a book). The race finishes with the Rat, the sober ruler this year. This mega-production has the right mix of adrenaline, tradition, and humor, a formula that’s always appreciated by local audiences.
这支广告来自中国工商银行，由Stink公司制作，用一系列动感的镜头、出色的艺术呈现和与十二生肖相关的故事吸引了大家的注意。中国工商银行在新年之际推出生肖主题银联信用卡，同时推出这个两分钟的广告，从生肖的起源开始讲起，然后开启一段紧张的接力赛。在一段传统皮影戏中，神告诉众动物需通过竞赛来争取生肖排序。然后故事来到现代，牛用跑酷的方式出场，将接力棒传给其他动物，每个动物都抓紧时间（除了羊在火车上平静地读着书），最后比赛以今年的生肖鼠结束。这个大制作广告结合了刺激感、传统以及幽默，这种方式总能收获中国观众的喜爱。
Airbnb is not a Chinese brand but their charming animation is all about Chinese traditions, family ties and Shanghai urban landscapes. It’s a typical Chinese New Year story where parents get a disappointing phone call from their only daughter a young nurse who has to stay on duty in Shanghai during the holidays. To her joyful surprise, it’s her parents who travel to the big city to join her, renting an Airbnb in the very same alleyway she lives. Following the brand’s ideas of “a home away from home,” they forge the same cozy feeling she had as a child. There’s excellent attention to detail in this animation and, if you are at least familiar to some of the urban features in China, you relate strongly to it. The speed train in the station, the streets covered with neon signs, and the traditional Shikumen architecture, they’re all delightfully reproduced in animation style. This animation is endearing and incredibly well done that we decided to write more about it later since we have a possibility to interview Final Frontier, one of the rare advertising animation productions we have in China.
爱彼迎虽然不是中国本土品牌，但其在春节推出的这支很好看的动画片讲的都是关于中国的传统，关于家庭关系以及上海城市生活。它讲的是一个典型的春节故事，在上海做护士的女儿因为过年要值班，所以打电话告诉在外地的父母过年不能回家了，这让父母很失望。但让她喜出望外的是，这次是父母来到上海与她团聚，并用爱彼迎平台在女儿住的弄堂里租了一间房子，还装饰成她小时候的温馨感觉，体现了爱彼迎的理念“旅途中的家”。这支动画有非常好的细节感，对中国大城市生活有了解的人都会有强烈的感受。高铁、布满霓虹灯牌的大街、传统石库门等，都以愉悦的动画的方式得以重现。这部片子很讨喜，做得也非常不错，SHP+稍后将另有采访其制作公司Final Frontier的报道。Final Frontier是中国为数不多的动画制作公司之一。
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