Beauty Brands Face China's "Cancel Culture"
Estée Lauder caught up in a fan dispute, trouble-free "virtual idols," Kuaishou goes to the museum, and more.
This week, a convoluted celebrity controversy ensnares some major foreign brands while others consider replacing influencers with their virtual alternative, short-video contender Kuaishou tries to go high-brow and China’s Quora-like Zhihu tugs heartstrings.
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Beauty Brands Face China’s "Cancel Culture"
Estée Lauder and Olay are among a number of major brands caught in the crossfire of a fan dispute involving Xiao Zhan, one of China’s most popular young celebrities.
The actor and singer, who began to top celebrity rankings last summer after starring on Tencent Video’s hit fantasy drama “The Untamed” (陈情令), has made deals with numerous brands over the past year and is one of China’s most bankable stars, but the unanticipated controversy may see at least some brands distance themselves.
On February 29, the U.S.-based nonprofit fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3) was suddenly blocked in China after being accessible in the country since its founding more than a decade ago. Members of the AO3 community in China were quick to pin the blame on Xiao’s fans, believing that they had reported the site to authorities over sexually explicit content that was hurting Xiao’s reputation, such as stories that portrayed Xiao engaged in a homosexual relationship with his “Untamed” costar Wang Yibo.
To retaliate over the loss of AO3, an expansive campaign to boycott Xiao was launched on Weibo and quickly became a top trending topic, drawing more than 220 million views and 306,000 comments by March 2, along with related calls to shun any brands associated with Xiao. Although Xiao’s 20-plus endorsements include many consumer brands such as Crest, Lay’s, and Budweiser, his higher-profile relationships with beauty labels Olay and Estée Lauder were more frequently called out on Weibo as targets of attack.
Olay has been in the midst of a major campaign in China featuring Xiao ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, which included a series of romantic short musical films that drew rave reviews from Xiao’s legion of fans. As the crisis unfolded, Olay continued to post new content featuring Xiao on Weibo, and an official livestreamer for the brand drew further outcry when she downplayed the impact of the AO3 community by referring to the anti-Xiao faction as “little people.”
Some netizens have noted the removal of Xiao’s image on brand pages associated with Crest, Mengniu, and Olay on various platforms, although as of March 2 no formal announcements had been made by any brand.
Xiao’s official fan club and his studio have issued apologies for “taking up public resources” with the controversy and urged fans to exercise restraint. The AO3 supporters have not been mollified, leaving one-star reviews on Douban for dramas that Xiao has appeared in and vowing to do the same for his upcoming series.
Homoerotic “boy love” (BL) is a popular sub-genre in China, and was an explicit part of the underlying IP from which “The Untamed” was adapted. Though that aspect was toned down on the series, fans of the show and its stars have long exercised their imaginations on platforms such as AO3. The government has also launched numerous crackdowns on unlawful and “unhealthy” content, most recently with the new set of consolidated internet rules that took effect on March 1, which some saw as another factor that led to AO3 being blocked.
The Virtual Alternative
Given the trouble that real-life celebrities can cause for brands, it’s no surprise that virtual idols have been gaining commercial success, and some brands have even created their own influencers to stay on message with consumers.
Among the current crop of youthful, anime-inspired virtual stars, Luo Tianyi is by far the best known, amassing millions of fans since her creation in 2012 as a singer. Luo Tianyi has appeared in collaborations with numerous brands, including KFC, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and Pechoin cosmetics.
Video-streaming platform iQiyi has also created a very different style of virtual celebrity with its hip-hop band, RiCH BOOM. The street-style characters of the group help to act as a bridge between brands and its popular reality competitions such as “Rap of China” (中国新说唱) and “Idol Producer” (青春有你). The band both appears on shows and in music-video commercials for sponsors including Tsingtao beer and Pinduoduo.
Kuaishou’s Content Upgrade
China’s number-two short video platform Kuaishou has had a longstanding reputation for a user base that hails largely from lower-tier cities, but that may be changing as it develops partnerships that allow it to reach different audiences.
Kuaishou sought out broader appeal as the interactive sponsor of this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala in January, giving away more than RMB 1 billion worth of virtual red envelopes in the process, and reached its longstanding goal of 300 million daily active users in the same month.
With the advent of the “cloud” as a way of life during the coronavirus epidemic (previously on CCI), Kuaishou has been moving into more sophisticated spheres, partnering with major cultural institutions to offer programming that can keep its expanded audience engaged.
In mid-February, Kuaishou launched a “Museums Are Fun” channel, kicking off with a virtual tour of the British Museum by an experienced Chinese docent who has spent the past two decades working in the country. Docent Chang’s 90-minute livestream broadcast drew 2 million viewers and more than 500,000 likes.
More recently, the short-video platform teamed up with Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art to stream a global online concert on February 29 inspired by the UCCA’s “Voluntary Garden” exhibition, which was closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Nine musicians and sound artists in different locations performed in succession during the three-and-a-half-hour livestream, among them the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in New York City and sound artist Feng Hao in Hefei. More than 3 million tuned in for the event, which also included words and gestures of encouragement that touched viewers, such a line etched on Sakamoto’s drum cymbals that read, “Made in Wuhan, China.”
Brand Film Pick: Zhihu’s “Thirty-Three”
Before the controversy over Xiao Zhan erupted over the weekend, the singer-actor was receiving kudos for his work with Chinese Q&A platform Zhihu on the brand’s recent short film “Thirty-three” (三十三).
The title refers to the 33 days since the coronavirus outbreak was declared as a public health emergency on January 25, which also marked the 33rd day of the Year of the Rat. In a span of three minutes and thirty seconds, the film reviews the national fight against coronavirus through three questions as they are posed through Zhihu’s search function. Xiao Zhan voices the replies over footage from the news outlets and other sources, and he closes with an optimistic message of national pride.
The film received an overwhelmingly positive response on Weibo, with close to 500,000 reposts, many coming from Xiao’s fans. The production took place remotely, with Xiao recording his voice on his smartphone and sending the audio files to Zhihu’s team, with the remaining content culled from various sources — another example of the “cloud” at work in content creation.
While Zhihu is most often described as a Chinese version of Quora, it is increasingly focused on monetization through e-commerce, with users able to recommend products in response to certain questions and drive traffic to partner sites such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, and it is far more actively engaged in innovative branding and marketing campaigns than its American counterpart.
News in English
Rather than face an indefinite postponement, the organizers of Shanghai Fashion Week are going all-in on the cloud, with plans to livestream the Autumn/Winter 2020 shows via Tmall from March 24-30. WWD
An upside to the coronavirus for retailers in China? Here are four — from stronger connections with consumers through private WeChat groups to a rising interest in health and wellness. Coresight Research
Wiped out: The pandemic simulation game Plague Inc., which became the top paid iOS app in China in late January, has been removed from China’s App Store and Steam for “illegal content.” Abacus
WeChat’s weaknesses enumerated: A number of strategic missteps over the years have cost it valuable user attention that’s gone to short video. WalktheChat
The coronavirus outbreak is pushing brands to speed up their integration on China’s range of digital platforms from e-commerce to livestreaming to social media. Vogue Business
Digital outlets are especially important for automakers, who saw their Chinese showrooms largely empty throughout the month of February. WSJ
We’ve Got China Covered
China Film Insider: Recap: 2020 Berlinale Sino-European Production Seminar
Despite the growing number of coronavirus-related cancellations around the world, Chinese and European film executives convened last week for their sixth annual gathering during the Berlinale, discussing challenges and opportunities in the Chinese market.
Recent reports from McKinsey, BCG and Kantar advise to prepare various timelines for recovery and increase digital communication with consumers in the meantime.
Bytedance’s short video apps for the Chinese and international markets offer new routes to reach younger audiences and encourage organic promotion through user-generated content.
Thank you for reading! We’ll see you again this Thursday.
- CCI Team