GAP Clothing And Usher Bring Freedom To China

Let's GAP Together

American clothing retailer, ‘GAP’ is launching the second phase of its first ever Chinese advertising campaign, “Let’s GAP Together“.

The campaign’s theme is an interesting one – according to the marketing press it, “celebrates the new-found sense of freedom and liberation of China’s youth“. This is in reference to the Chinese government recent “openess and reconnection to the world”.

“Freedom” and “China” are two words that many Westerners would be cautious to place together. The perception from the West is that Chinese people are not free. One could refer to countless examples where Chinese people are denied certain freedoms, most recently China’s blocking of micro-blogs that referred to “Egypt”.

Despite the restrictions there is no doubt the Chinese youth of today (aka ‘The Golden Generation’) have arguably more freedom than ever before.

Lets-Gap-Together China Store

Personally though, I don’t think GAP’s campaign is referring to political freedom, but more trying to demonstrate that the brand’s clothing allows Chinese consumers the freedom to express themselves.

Although I do wonder how many Mainland Chinese can actually afford GAP clothing? Probably not a large majority. Therefore, at the risk of reading too much into it, is GAP somehow inadvertently saying that freedom only comes with wealth? Hmm.

Before this gets too heavy, let’s look at the print ads. Each advert pairs American and Chinese individuals, who best represent freedom of self-expression, with the intent of illustrating that despite the cultural differences between the USA and China – creativity and individuality break down all boundaries.

The photographer was Annie Leibovitz and you will see below there are some interesting pairings:

The DJsDiplo and Wordy

GAP China - DJ Diplo and DJ Wordy

The Pop-starsUsher and Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai and Usher

The FilmmakersBarry Levinson and Johnnie To

GAP China - Johnny To and Barry Levinson

The PhotographersAnnie Leibovitz and Wing Shya

GAP China -- Annie Leibovitz and Wing Shiya

The EnvironmentalistsZhou Xun and Philippe Cousteau Jr

GAP China - Philippe Cousteau Jr and Zhou Xun

The BloggersJulia Frakes and Wang Momo

GAP-China-Print-Ad-Wang-Momo-and-Julia-Frakes

The Artists Ceilen Lau and Tristan Eaton

GAP China - Tristan Eaton and Ceilen Lau

Do check out GAP’s “Let’s Gap Together” website, which is  available in both English and Chinese. If you want to learn more about the campaign watch the video below:

On YouTube

On Tudou

Here are some photos / videos of the campaign in action:

Lets Gap Together Outdoor Advertising 3

Lets Gap Together Outdoor Advertising 2

Let's Get Together Outdoor Advertising

GAP China - Magazine advertising

Gap China - instore

Agency credit to: Y&R China

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