To Snake or not to Snake? Luxury brands unveil CNY campaigns. To Snake or not to Snake?

With the year of the snake just around the corner, most retailers have already launched their chinese new year (cny) ads, which have become the norm each year.

Luxury brands, for example, have more budget for cultural initiatives.

However, it is particularly difficult this year because the snake, in an everyday sense, has a similar negative reputation as the west, due to its slithering and occasionally venomous appearance.

This is the opposite of last year, when the dragon gave almost every marketer nearly too many angles to marketers.

Brands are delving deeper into traditional symbolism or shifting attention to the spring festival celebrations, particularly traditional chinese communities.

Loewe, a luxury brand, has chinese roots, and traditional chinese communities are among the many brands focusing on traditional symbolism or shifting attention to the spring festival celebrations.

The brand collaborates with local experts and master craftspeople to plan collaborations from its monochrome ceramic-themed handbags in 2023 to the jade collection last year, collaborating with local artisans and master craftspeople to discuss the product's collaborations.

Loewe tackled the snake element head-on this year, as the brand's emphasis on each year's chosen style of craft matches the brand's cultural heritage.

Loewe collaborated with craftspeople to celebrate traditional chinese art and craft, on the one hand, it continues to collaborate with craftspeople to pay homage to traditional chinese art and craft.

The brand also produced a short promotional video for the cny capsule collection, which included artworks of a snake, a monkey, or auspicious clouds.

The snake is the most prominent feature of artist shen xintong's and intangible cultural heritage inheritor zhang xiaodong's shadow puppets, kite-making, and contemporary dance.

Versace and bulgari are among china's snake symbolism brands that have dug into the snake symbolism, while snakes, dancer xin, and her company all perform snake-inspired moves in both shadow and light.

Bulgari, a chinese zodiac company, held an exhibition in shanghai's zhang garden between 9 and 16 january to honor not only the snake's appearance in the chinese zodiac but also traditional chinese ink wash painting.

On the other hand, some brands have managed to shift the attention away from snakes and toward the lore and customs of the new year in the traditional chinese lunisolar calendar, some even skipped the snakes.

For example, kering, the company that owns brands such as gucci, yves saint laurent, and balenciaga, teamed up with chinese contemporary artist jiang miao for a special edition of chinese contemporary art, focusing on chinese culture in general.

Miu miu, the sister brand of prada, announced on january 7th, with actresses liu haocun and zhao jinmai, both miu miu's brand ambassadors, as well as music from the film.

The video is shot in a nostalgic cantonese/hong kong-style bar called "chinatown," where the two actresses sip with their drinks while the band performs soft r&b music.

Then, the band's ambassador, lexie liu.

Liu haocun and zhao are free to explore however they want, from making their own drinks to playing the instruments, as well as beijing, shanghai and guangzhou.

On january 10, german luxury brand montblanc unveiled a meisterstück fountain pen for the chinese new year, honoring the materials of bamboo, gold, and jade to pay their respect to.

However, chinese netizens on weibo did not particularly like it, as many found the product thematically vague and to be a mash-up of oriental motifs.

The jingtai blue-inspired collection would have already been a good cny campaign for other luxury brands with a capsule collection devoted to traditional chinese craft and culture, according to this, which, paradoxically, demonstrated traditional chinese craft and culture.

On the other hand, brands such as ami and tiffany, on the other hand, simply used snake motifs in their cny exclusive collection as a minimalist, exclusive collection.

For example, these lower-effort attempts to connect the snake to some well-wishing symbolism can be a safe way to avoid unexpected backlash.

Cny campaign video, for example, has been deemed a flop due to the snake's vague marketing of its celebrity.

With difficult zodiac years such as the mouse and the snake, digging deeper into traditional interpretations, the saferst option may be simpler ways of diverting attention away from the animal.

Of course, loewe and versace, as the best way to show respect to the local customers for luxury brands during cny, but sometimes simpler ways of distracting attention away from the animal could be the most effective option.

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