Title | THE BUCKET |
Brand | APPLE |
Product / Service | APPLE |
Category | E04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight |
Entrant | TBWA\MEDIA ARTS LAB Shanghai, CHINA |
Idea Creation | TBWA\MEDIA ARTS LAB Shanghai, CHINA |
Media Placement | OMD Shanghai, CHINA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Brent Anderson | Media Arts Lab | Chief Creative Officer |
JD Jurentkuff | Media Arts Lab | Group Creative Director |
Stephen Kong | Media Arts Lab | Creative Director |
David Seah | Media Arts Lab | Creative Director |
Joey Chung | Media Arts Lab | Associate Creative Director |
Gina Wang | Media Arts Lab | Senior Art Director |
Alpher Xian | Media Arts Lab | Senior Art Director |
Jet Aw | Media Arts Lab | Associate Creative Director |
Ewan Yap | Media Arts Lab | Associate Creative Director |
Amber Qian | Media Arts Lab | Associate Creative Director |
Carrol Shen | Media Arts Lab | Designer |
Juan Zhang | Media Arts Lab | Junior Art Director |
Junyu Deng | Media Arts Lab | Designer |
This is not the usual story about heading home for CNY, but about leaving home at the end of CNY. It tells of a guy and his difficult journey back to the city with a mysterious bucket from his mom. It got him unwanted attention, became a burden, and slowed his journey as he weaved his way back to the city through the throngs of people. When he finally returns to his apartment in the city and opens the bucket, he realizes that he’s been lugging a bucket of sand, and eggs for hours. He ultimately realizes that his mother simply wanted to provide him with a cure for homesickness—comfort food. A shift from burden to acceptance then occurs. Though The Bucket is about one person’s story, it’s one that every Chinese would identify with. For each of us, the taste of home is always difficult to leave behind.
One-Child Policy The current working class (aged 18-40) were born under the policy. Raised with only single-child peers, their collective mental state is certainly unique. They feel huge obligations for their parents, often feeling guilty; but they also struggle with reconnecting during CNY, since they now lead different lives. Taste of Home Food is one of the most important things connecting the Chinese to their hometowns. So, parents will stuff their children’s luggage with hometown foods before they return to the cities, as it represented an extension of their love. The children are usually obligated to accept, but they are also happy since they can then enjoy the taste of home in the city. The Bucket The white plastic buckets make a unique scene during CNY as many people use them as containers when returning to their hometowns. That’s why the campaign title created immediate resonance and triggered huge curiosity.
Chinese New Year is often the only time all year when Chinese parents and their children get to see each other and reconnect, as their kids work in the cities to take advantage of China’s rapid development. However, with the gap between urban and rural areas increasingly widening, their lives are diverging greatly. This social phenomenon makes CNY the perfect time for Apple to tell its POV that no matter how different we become, humanity will always reconnect us. Towards the end of CNY, many parents extend their love with an overzealous gifting of food. Many kids would post photos of their overloaded luggage to complain. Apple tapped into this topical cultural tension and changed the conversation. What used to be a burdensome joke became love and pride. Thus bridging the gap between generations and celebrating the love of Chinese parents.