Apple explores identity and social media in magical film for Chinese New Year

Apple digs into the anxieties around identity in the social media age in a compelling short film for Chinese New Year—the seventh straight year it’s created a long-form ad for the holiday. The 15-minute film, called “Little Garlic,” created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai, tells the story of a Chinese girl who, at a young age, becomes self-conscious about her appearance due to her broad nose, which her grandpa lovingly calls her “garlic nose.” (He has one, too.) Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Drawn to the “perfect” photos of women in magazines, the girl, who’s also being bullied at school, begins to obsess about becoming someone else—anyone else—while her grandfather offers the seemingly bland advice that she should just be herself. Soon, in a series of supernatural flourishes, the girl begins to actually become the people she wants to be—at one point morphing into a popular schoolmate. Soon, we jump forward in time, as the girl becomes a young woman living in the big city. With her insecurities now amplified by social media, the pressures of identity only increase—and her shapeshifting superpowers become that much more dangerous. Apple hasn’t explored the painful effects of unreasonable beauty standards, exacerbated by social media, in advertising before. Tor Myhren, VP of marketing communications at Apple, told Ad Age it’s a timely message that should resonate globally. “The human insight is what makes this one so special,” he said “So many people, especially young people, all over the world, have struggled with identity, which can be amplified by social media. It’s a very simple human truth that will hopefully strike a chord.” As with Apple’s six previous Chinese New Year films, this one serves as an elaborate product demo, as it was entirely shot on iPhone—this time, the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It was directed by the American filmmaker Marc Webb (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) from a script by Chinese screenwriter Pan Yi Ran (“The Long Season”). Cecile Zhang, a young Chinese creator, served as cinematographer. As seen in a behind-the-scenes video (below), Webb designed certain shots in the film to take advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities—for example, shooting inside the cupboard, where no large camera would ever fit. He also used iPhone features such as 5x Optical Zoom, Action Mode and Cinematic Mode. All the effects—including the girl transforming into other people—were done in-camera. “What always strikes me, working with world-class directors like Marc who maybe haven’t explored iPhone fully [before the shoot], is how shocked they are at how capable it is,” Myhren said. “They’re always like, wow, not only can it do almost anything a big film camera can do, it can actually do more. Intimate shots can become even more so because of the size of the camera and the portraiture it can achieve.” Myhren added that the iPhone’s technical capabilities allowed Webb to do what he does best—tell evocative stories, where the tech disappears and the humanity shines through. “He’s a very, very human storyteller who simplifies things really well,” he said. “He got incredible performances from all the actors. You really believe them. Like any film, what you relate to most is the people, the characters and their story. And I think it’s a pretty deep story.” Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Apple has been making celebrated short films for Chinese New Year since 2018’s “Three Minutes,” directed by Peter Chan. The films routinely get hundreds of millions of views, with the two most recent ones—2023’s “Through the Five Passes,” directed by Peng Fei, and 2022’s “The Comeback,” directed by Zhang Meng—each nearing half a billion views when counting the main films and behind-the-scenes combined. (In addition, “The Comeback” and 2021’s “Nian,” directed by Lulu Wang, both won Best of Show at the Tribeca X awards.) For Apple, the films are a way of engaging the critical Chinese market at a time of year that’s rich for storytelling. “No matter where you live in China, you’re hopping on a train or plane or getting in the car and heading home for the New Year. And home can be far away,” Myhren said. “Often it’s people coming from the city and going to the more rural areas. The connection of family, the cultural significance of that, we’ve always felt is such a perfect opportunity to tell stories. We want Apple to have a place in that.” As the series has grown in popularity, Myhren said Apple is trying to retain the simplicity of the storytelling—a hallmark of the company’s advertising for decades. “The temptation of these things sometimes is to make them bigger and bigger. We’ve resisted that and said, let’s make them better and better,” he said. “Let’s make the stories more resonant, the characters even deeper. It’s not like, hey, let’s go have a CGI fest. It’s always about the story, making that part better.” The film will run on broadcast, digital and social media, including paid media in China. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here

Apple explores identity and social media in magical film for Chinese New Year

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