Brief Explanation

SK-II is an international prestige skincare brand looking to grab a larger share of the Chinese market. But in China advertising for cosmetics is often rational and celebrity focused. “Use this cream and get flawless skin, just like this movie star.” In order to stand out, SK-II was looking to do something with emotional quality. SK-II had already established #changedestiny – a campaign designed to inspire women to shape their skin destiny. Our idea was to elevate the campaign to include “life destiny”. To achieve this we traveled to China to conduct interviews with women in the target group. The Sheng Nu label, meaning “leftover woman”, and the pressure to marry, sometimes at the expense of their careers and independence, emerged as a big issue in their lives. The objective was to change the perception of Sheng Nus and challenge the way we view single women all over the world. We wanted to give a voice to women under pressure to marry and find a symbolic way for them to make a statement. The marriage market is a place where the pressure materializes in physical form. It seemed fitting that the women would stand their ground there. We built an installation and replaced the dating ads with personalized messages from single women, proclaiming that they’re happy being independent, contrary to the image being portrayed by media. To create a story we shot a documentary with four single women and their parents. We used real women and not actors, making it easier for the target audience to relate. Many women feel alone in facing this pressure and by using real women we could combat that notion. The film was created as a tool that people could use to raise awareness. After all, it’s easier sharing a film than to start a debate on your own. The film has over 44 million views around the globe, showing the universal appeal of the message. Over 2000 editorial pieces and been featured in everything from Forbes, BBC and CNN to Buzzfeed, Mashable, Huffington Post and Elle generating a total reach of over 4 billion. The story has spread to 55 countries on all continents and proved to be a huge success in China, where it became the first ever to make the top ten trend list on the 650 million users strong Weibo. It has also been featured on news channels, with over 7 million social actions as a result and SK-II’s YouTube subscribers have more than doubled. Most importantly, thousands of social media posts from women talking about how the campaign has had a real effect. We created so much buzz that the state-owned media promoting the Sheng Nu term couldn’t ignore addressing the campaign.