Chinese New Year Creative Showcase

Xin nian kuai le! Chinese New Year, Tet, Spring Festival, Lunar New Year – whatever you want to call it, we’re celebrating it. Today officially marks the beginning of the Year of the Horse (snakes are like, so 2013) and it looks like the creative community has been infused with spirit of Black Beauty, putting out some beautiful work with a slow-motion flick of its lustrous mane. LBB’s Laura Swinton straddles a stallion and rides off in search of some of the most interesting Chinese New Year work from brands, agencies and…the American Consulate?

Louis Vuitton

LOUIS VUITTON - Chinese Lunar New Year 2014 from Mustashrik Mahbub on Vimeo.

Partizan Paris and director Mustashrik lead the race with a stunning animation for Louis Vuitton. Inspired by traditional art, this beautiful piece combines the translucent smokiness of Chinese watercolour paintings with dramatic inky slashes of Chinese calligraphy. This makes us very happy.

Luxury Hongbao

One East Asian tradition we really hope catches on in the west is that of giving red envelopes stuffed with cash. But while traditionally this financial injection has largely benefited children and younglings, the upwardly mobile are getting in on the act. Vogue China editor Angelica Cheung posted a selection of luxury brand envelopes on her Sina Weibo account, which proves that for Western brands like Hugo Boss, Celine, Fendi and more, the Eastern market is very now, darling.

Landor Vietnam’s Chinese New Year Card

Landor Chinese New Year Card 2014 - Vietnamese version from Lok Fu on Vimeo.

Animator Lok Fu has eschewed the intricacies and delicateness of traditional Asian aesthetics for a bold and vibrant short film for Landor Associates. Inspired by the Chinese saying 馬到功成 (ma dao cheng dong) which translates as ‘Success is assured when the horse arrives’, it’s a playful and optimistic tribute to this year’s equine hero.

Lol wut?

The self-appointed ‘creative industries’ can be a smug lot, can’t we? Like we have some sort of monopoly on creativity, or something, which is just not the case. Take the politcos and bureaucrats at the  U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macau, for example. They’re welcoming in the New Year with a short film about an American horse looking to make it big in Asia. OK, sure, it’s not got the polish we’re used to, their hand puppet isn’t quite as impressive as MPC’s Moonwalking Pony and the whole thing feels uncannily like an episode of the American Office… but it’s worth knowing about. Sort of. And it stars a guy wearing the most amazing panda sweater.

Explosive stuff

Happy Year of the Horse! from Marc & Chantal on Vimeo.

Branding agency Marc & Chantal keep it short and sweet with a cracking little animation that combines fireworks and horses in a way that doesn’t result in blood and viscera all over the carpet.

An Eco-friendly Festival

Today’s news is tomorrow’s wrapping paper. Chinese new Year generates a lot of waste – to keep up with the demand for wrapping paper alone, 1,600 trees are cut down and 170,000 litres of petrol burned. So Saatchi & Saatchi Hong Kong teamed up with Sun Hung Kai’s (SHK) East Point City mall to install an instant newspaper recycler that turned tabloids into unique prints. The machine took 30 seconds to perform the transformation.

Pepsi’s Planes

Call us old softies if you will, but BBDO Vietnam’s recent Pepsi project tugged the ol’ heart strings. To celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese New Year which also falls today, Pepsi chartered two planes to help students and low-income workers in Ho Chih Min city reunite with their families in the countryside.

Nouvel An Chinois

Lancôme and Publicis 133 teamed up with We Are Flink to create a luxurious spin on the traditional Chinese craft of paper cutting, Jianzhi. The ethereal animation, created entirely in 3D, is one of a number of Chinese New Year efforts by high-end luxury brands. Read into that what you will. 

Google doodle

OK, chances are you’ve all seen this but we can’t ignore the lovely Google doodle. The animation steers clear of Chinese cliché and features muted, earthy tones rather than the traditional red. 

Grab a Bud

OK, so this isn't strictly speaking anything to do with Chinese New Year, but Budweiser has trundled out their annual Clydesdale horse Super Bowl commercial. This year they've turned the cute factor up to 11 by adding puppies into the mix and we really can't resist. It's got horses in, it counts.