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By Charlotte McEleny, Asia Editor

February 2, 2021 | 2 min read

You may not be anywhere near the office water cooler right now, but we still want to spotlight the most talked about creative from the brands that should be on your radar. Today, we look at Apple’s Chinese New Year ad.

Apple’s strategy of telling a well-crafted story filmed using its latest mobile phone consistently prevails. For Chinese New Year 2021, the brand has used its spot to tell the fantastical tale of a girl and a monster.

The tech firm has enlisted award-winning filmmaker Lulu Wang, who directed the film remotely from LA, with a film crew on the ground in China.

The story of the film follows a brave young girl that discovers a monster from scare stories her parents told her is actually real. She faces up to the monster to find that he’s not actually that scary after all and befriends the beast. When her parents find out, they scold her for believing the tales, revealing it’s just a story they tell to warn children from wandering into the forest. However, they realise they themselves are just scared of their child growing up and instead decide to indulge in her fantasies, themselves discovering the stories they had been telling were true all along.

Apple has also released a film that shows the making of ’Nian’, including the challenges of directing a film crew remotely.

The film, by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai and production company Iconoclast, follows its previous Chinese New Year Ads; ’Daughter’ (2020), ’The ’ (2019) and ’Three Minutes’ (2018).

Creative Water Cooler Creative Chinese New Year

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