Tag Heuer has announced that Chinese actress Yang Ying, aka Angelababy, has just become its global brand ambassador. This collaboration follows closely on the heels of a similar partnership she had with the Parisian fashion house Christian Dior in May, which became controversial after it attracted swaths of negative reviews on social media.
The Swiss luxury timepiece brand, owned by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, made the announcement of Angelababy's new role on June 1 on its official Weibo account.
In that post, the brand wrote, "Today, the high-profile popular star Angelababy officially becomes Tag Heuer's global ambassador." The account also posted a video featuring Angelababy wearing the brand's watches and behind-the-scenes images from commercial shoots.
As with the Dior appointment, the Tag Heuer post has quickly attracted users' attention. By the time of this publication, it has been commented on by nearly 8,000 Weibo accounts and the number of shares has exceeded 114,000.
Some of the harsh comments harked back to those garnered during the Dior controversy. "How much did her husband pay for this role?" wrote 'miaomiao cecelia.' "Does she have no shame?"
Aside from the rumors of plastic surgery, Angelababy has also been generally accused of relying on her husband—the famous Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming—for the development of her career. Huang is a shareholder of the entertainment company Huayi Brothers Media Corp, which owns a film studio, television production company and a talent agency that manages Angelababy's career.
[embed width="720" height="456"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0k48XVFHE
Internet users, in general, though, have been less critical about Angelababy's new position, with many of them congratulating her on the collaboration and noting how she deserves it. “Tag Heuer is known for its independent and energetic image," wrote ‘To My Lovely Baby' on Weibo, "which matches Angelababy’s independent style."
The brand itself has showed firm support of the actress. After the first introductory post, Tag Heuer pushed out three more posts during the day to explain why they decided to work with Angelababy.
"Angelababy has outstanding beauty, is incredibly chic and has a charming personality," Tag Heuer wrote one post. "And she performs well under pressure. We warmly welcome her to join our big family."
Tag Heuer's choice of Angelababy came less as a surprise than the one by Dior for at least two reasons. Compared to Dior, the watch brand is not quite as high-profile and it's less popular among Chinese affluent consumers. It has also previously shown an interest in boosting its presence among Chinese millennials, which makes the role all the more on point given Angelababy's popularity among teenagers.