Lunar New Year—how Bumble, Pizza Hut and other brands are celebrating

Lunar New Year celebrations officially begin this Saturday, as people across Asia and around the world gear up to ring in the Year of the Dragon. Brands, for their part, have readied short films, special products and custom campaigns to tie themselves to the festivities. Ad Age has rounded up some of this season’s most notable creative work—some from well-established celebrants, others from Lunar New Year newcomers—to get a sense of how advertisers are marking the occasion. Apple The Year of the Dragon marks the seventh consecutive year that Apple has created a long-form video to welcome the Lunar New Year, this time enlisting TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai and Hollywood director Marc Webb to create a playful 15-minute film. “Little Garlic” explores a young Chinese woman’s perceptions of her own beauty and identity in the age of social media. But as is typical with Apple’s ads, the film doubles as a product demo, shot entirely on an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Also read: Apple reveals 7-minute Super Bowl Halftime Show ad Sprinkles Bakery chain Sprinkles has partnered with the Bruce Lee Foundation and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders nonprofit Gold House to offer a couple of limited-time treats for the upcoming festivities. The centerpiece of its new launch is the Golden Dragon Bruce Lee Cupcake, a red velvet cupcake topped with almond cream cheese frosting and a decorative dragon candy topper (almonds and the color red are both said to be symbolic of good fortune in Chinese culture). The new cupcake and Sprinkles’ custom-wrapped New Year Box bundle are both available nationwide through Feb. 11. Din Tai Fung In a company-first, Taiwan-based restaurant chain Din Tai Fung has launched a campaign centered on the upcoming holiday. “Dear Mrs. Chen,” its 60-second anchor spot, is narrated from the perspective of a woman invited to partake in Lunar New Year celebrations by her best friend’s family at a Din Tai Fung location, all while enjoying the restaurant’s seasonal New Year offerings such as “longevity noodles” and traditional red gift envelopes, known as “hongbao.” A microsite was also launched to accompany the campaign. Lululemon Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh is the star of activewear brand Lululemon’s dramatic new Lunar New Year film, “Be Spring,” appearing alongside eight dancers from the Shenzhen Opera to undertake “a poetic enactment of the meeting of mind and body,” according to the company. But the campaign, from the brand’s in-house creative team in China, has also become the subject of criticism online following Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s recent comments criticizing the company’s DE&I initiatives. (Lululemon opposed the remarks from Wilson, who left the brand’s board in 2015.) Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is highlighting the importance of togetherness in a new Lunar New Year ad, “No One Is Left Behind,” which is running in Malaysia, where Chinese people make up the country’s second-largest ethnic group, according to recent government estimates. Created by Kuala Lumpur-based agency Ensemble, the film shows a daughter’s clever tricks to get her busy father’s attention until, faced with spending the New Year holiday apart from her, he has to employ the same strategy—with a little help from Pizza Hut. FairPrice Singaporean retailer FairPrice has created a new campaign that borrows from the ancient folk story of the Great Race, in which the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac competed to determine their place on the calendar. Narrated by a little girl, it emphasizes how the mighty dragon was expected to win, but ultimately came in fifth place because he stopped to help others along the way—drawing visual parallels to those in our lives who go “above and beyond.” The spot was created by Omnicom’s Homeground United. OMO Unilever laundry detergent brand OMO has launched an empowering new music video to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese New Year holiday, which generally falls on the same date as—and shares some traditions with—the Lunar New Year. Starring renowned local singer Hòa Minzy, the song offers a message of resilience amid a tough economic situation and has quickly become a hit in Vietnam, racking up more than 18 million views since being published on YouTube last month. It was handled by agency MullenLowe Mishra, which is based in Ho Chi Minh City. DBS Bank Wealth is a major theme of Lunar New Year celebrations around the world, and this year, DBS Bank, the largest financial institution in Southeast Asia, is launching a product to help attract good fortune: HUAT Eau De Parfum, a limited-edition fragrance that smells like the crisp banknotes Chinese people tend to prefer to stuff into their hongbao. Created in partnership with Singapore’s The Secret Little Agency, the money-scented perfume will be made available via DBS’s Instagram page in the coming days. Bumble Bumble is putting a new spin on the Lunar New Year tradition of Lo Hei—translated as “prosperity toss,” where diners take turns mixing the ingredients of yusheng—with a new holiday marketing effort in Singapore dubbed “Toss Love Into the New Year.” Launched with a four-minute film starring Singaporean influencer Saffron Sharpe, the campaign lays out the dating app’s “8 Love Mantras;” affirmations that its users can harness to manifest the lover of their dreams, which also support a giveaway running until Feb. 12.

Lunar New Year—how Bumble, Pizza Hut and other brands are celebrating

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