What happened
In mid-December, Little Red Book launched a KOC campaign — led by four female public figures — titled Fashion Partners to promote its social e-commerce channel.
Celebrity agent Yang Tianzhen, actresses Xu Jiao and Yang Caiyu, and rapper Nineone were chosen to shed some light on the diverse values of modern women, with each representing a different style. An announcement for the campaign stated, “The notion of fashion should be diverse and indefinable.”
The campaign’s capstone is a two-week competition that invites users to cast up to 10 votes for their favorite KOC every day until December 31. Users can also see a curation of clothing and accessories under each theme: China chic, casual, streetwear, and exquisite. So far, posts with the hashtag #FashionPartners have been viewed over 200 thousand times.
Yang, who is the face of the casual style, is seen as the person who made the career of many top-tier celebrities, including Fan Bingbing (Guerlain’s global spokesperson) and singer Lu Han (Gucci’s brand ambassador). As a key figure behind China’s body diversity movement, Yang started her plus-size label, Plusmall, earlier this year.
Jing Take:#
Compared to Little Red Book’s forward-thinking choices for their latest campaign faces, luxury’s picks of Chinese celebrities and KOLs still lack diverse body types, ages, and backgrounds.
This summer’s popular reality show Sisters Who Make Waves has helped break barriers for older female celebrities, yet many viewers still criticized it for promoting a traditional beauty standard of being pale and thin. But since the show first aired, there has been a greater awakening of female identity in China. As such, brands should know that diversity has become a prevalent trend.
In recent months, celebrities have started using their platforms to illustrate women's daily struggles and anxieties. In November, director and actress Zhao Wei put out the monologue series Hear Her, which features eight episodes on Chinese women's anxieties, from family pressure to beauty. And this month, singer Sitar Tan's new song “Xiao Juan” won praise for calling out China’s long-overlooked domestic violence issue.
Yang’s popularity over her outspoken personality reflects how young females in China are welcoming role models who bend social stereotypes, and it’s time for luxury to decide whether they should be the stereotype or defy it.
The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.