Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays of the year, involving numerous traditional rituals and practices around food, housecleaning, decorations, gift-giving and more. In recent years however, the festival has gone through a transformation of its own, with younger generations reimagining some of these century-old traditions to fit their busy lifestyle and the hyper-digital world they live in. This shift has accentuated the generational gap between today’s youth and their elders, with a lack of shared Lunar New Year rituals.
As the Year of The Rabbit hops into view, we take a look at some of the rabbit themed ad campaigns below.
McDonald’s
For Lunar New Year, McDonald’s has teamed with Karen X Cheng, a leading digital content creator whose work utilizes AI and AR and often goes viral, for a campaign that spans several cutting edge technologies. The fast food giant hopes the “tech-forward” effort will celebrate the holiday and help uplift the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders community, according to Elizabeth Campbell, McDonald’s senior director of cultural engagement strategy.
“The 30-second ad spot is inspired by Cheng’s childhood memories of the holiday and features a QR code call-to-action that leads to other campaign elements. The ad’s use of NeRF technology comes as AI begins to emerge as a key technology for marketers.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is ushering in the Lunar New Year with the launch of a new multi-touchpoint campaign celebrating the magic of togetherness and cross-generational connection that is synonymous with the holiday season. Created by Ogilvy Shanghai as part of the OpenX by WPP team, the regional campaign features a short animated film launched across 8 markets in Asia, supported by an interactive AI-powered mobile activation, as well as limited edition packaging incorporating interactive AR elements.
Gucci
Gucci celebrates Lunar New Year 2023 with a delightful campaign, ushering in its new collection devoted to the festive season as well as the start of spring. Captured by Max Siedentopf‘s lens, models including Emma Pei and Ruiqi Jiang gracefully showcase Gucci’s whimsical designs for this joyous occasion.
Burberry
Burberry’s Year of the Rabbit efforts go deeper than just a collection — it culminates in the campaign video. Starring actors Qi Xi, Shi Pengyuan, and the sportswoman Zhao Lina, and captured by the video director Zika Liu and photographer Sky, the triptych approach provides a commentary on the three protagonists exploring to find freedom, as each character’s own film part plays into one larger visual dialog on creativity.
Nike
Perhaps the most on-trend of the Year of the Rabbit releases is the China-exclusive Dunk Low collection from Nike.
The model has been the biggest of the last couple of years thanks to the “Panda” design, but these four rabbit-inspired sneakers may find favour among sneakerheads.
The “Shanghai Rabbit” Dunks feature a paper-cut rabbit detail to the heel and contrasting blue and red terry cloth swooshes.
