Celebrity endorsement is booming in China. As we all know, many of the country’s urban consumers are revelling in newfound wealth and there is a growing trend to purchase products and brands to ‘flaunt status and gain respect’ (particularly amongst Shanghai’s post-90’s youth).
A great example of this is shown by European car manufacturers building ‘long-wheel based’ versions of their saloon cars specifically for the Chinese market (e.g. the BMW 5 Series Li and the Mercedes E300L). There seems to be a belief that the size of car reflects how rich a person is.
Another way Chinese (and Western) consumers try to gain status is to puchase the same products and brands as their favourite celebrities. China Life (中國人壽 – Zhōngguó Rénshòu) has jumped on the celebrity endorsement bandwagon and has signed Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) to become the organisation’s brand ambassador. Here are the TVC’s:
On Youtube
On Youku
For those of you unfamiliar with Jolin Tsai, she is a Taiwanese pop-star and a major name in China. You may remember that she recently starred alongside Usher in GAP’s Chinese advertising campaign ‘Let’s GAP Together‘.
The organisation China Life Insurance is a large state-owned financial and insurance company. It is the only Chinese insurance company on the Fortune Global 500 list and the World Brand 500 list.
Despite sounding like an intimidating corporate powerhouse, the company does (in typical Chinese style) have its own theme song for its tag-line “We Share, We Link“:
The video below is a clip from the China Life press conference announcing Jolin as their new brand ambassador:
Also as part of the campaign for a reason unknown to me a DVD and calendar has also been created:
Finally here are some behind the scene photos from the filming of the TV Commercial:
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Images courtesy of: imarkeyes.blogspot.com (馬克手札)
