• The classic Chongqing-founded toothpaste brand Leng Suan Ling enlists the help of renowned stage actor Pu Cunxin for this nostalgia-tinged Chinese New Year advert.
• Against the backdrop of China’s rapid pace of development, the advert celebrates the abundance of happiness in modern life.
• The advert draws a link between prosperity and healthy teeth through the idea of “desensitisation”, a play on Leng Suan Ling’s age-old tagline.

What makes the first day of the Lunar New Year special? The fact that it’s just like any other day, says Leng Suan Ling, China’s leading toothpaste brand for sensitive teeth and a holder of the rubber-stamped China Top Brand status since 2002.

Leng Suan Ling was established in 1987 in Chongqing, a Western China metropolis best known for its numbingly spicy flavours. Perhaps inspired by the hot cuisine of the region, Leng Suan Ling’s marketing angle has always been that with its products, you can eat anything you wish without fear of toothache – cold, hot, sweet, or sour, happy year after year (“冷热酸甜，幸福年年”).

For its 2024 Chinese New Year campaign, the classic brand enlisted the help of another cultural icon – Pu Cunxin, China’s most well-recognised stage actor. Pu lends his dulcet tones to this 4-minute advert that tugs on the heartstrings by reminding viewers just how much China has changed.

Then vs Now: Rationing happiness for Chinese New Year

In the opening shots of the advert, the 70-year-old actor pores over the pages of a photo album, and the viewer is transported back in time to 1992, where a bustling and snow-dusted Beijing hutong gets ready for the arrival of a new year. Moving through a life-filled house, Pu tells how in those days every special piece of clothing, every treat was saved assiduously, only to be enjoyed on that one most important day of the year. In 1992, China’s economic miracle was just beginning and memories of widespread suffering were not so distant. “Back then, we were always worried happiness would run out, so we squirrelled it away and waited until New Year to finally unwrap it like a gift”.

Returning to the present day, we see family members video call via smartphones and a young couple reuniting, having travelled by plane for the umpteenth time. These slices of life are intended to show how economic and technological development has washed away the scarcity mindset of less prosperous times, making life’s most precious moments more abundant: “These days happiness is no longer a New Year’s treat, but instead an item of daily use.” Pu concludes that his generation’s greatest source of happiness is that happiness doesn’t have to be rationed out, but can be found everywhere “like the rainwater and air”.

Finding beauty in the ordinary

In a time when the shine seems to have long worn off China’s economic miracle and many are positing that China will “get old before it gets rich”, it’s easy to feel nostalgic for the boom times of the 90s and early 2000s. Leng Suan Ling’s advert spins all that on its head. Conveyed effectively through the wisdom of a member of the older generation, this advert suggests we should recognise the objective richness of the present and see this as a cause for an inner, never-ending celebration.

Unexpectedly, this puts a positive spin on the idea of desensitisation, challenging the idea that being accustomed to something makes us feel it less keenly, or makes it less valuable. This is a clever conceptual play given that, as a brand specialising in anti-sensitivity toothpaste, Leng Suan Ling’s mission is to make sensations less intense, precisely so they can be enjoyed more.  The advert also describes happiness as a daily necessity or item of daily use (日用品). Again, Leng Suan Ling itself falls into this product category, so romanticising 日用品 as a metaphor for prosperity is an inventive way of enriching a seemingly mundane product with a much deeper meaning.

Ultimately, the advert is a return to the brand’s roots. Much as Leng Suan Ling has always wished you enjoy all of life’s flavours – cold, hot, sour or sweet – it wishes happiness accompany your every day, not just the first day of the year.

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Square dancing is a common sight in public spaces in China’s towns and cities, with the sheer size of the group often creating a spectacle – it is not strange to see hundreds dancing in unison in larger spaces. Loudspeakers blasting anything from the latest Western pop to Mao-era revolutionary hits are part and parcel of a quintessential square dancing scene.

As part of a trial program to tackle noise pollution city-wide, Xiamen authorities now recommend that dancing aunties should congregate no earlier than 7am and no later than 9pm. Their music should also be no louder than 75 decibels – a notch above the volume of a vacuum cleaner – and they should station themselves at least 25 metres away from “noise-sensitive” buildings such as hospitals, schools, and residences.

Xiamen’s local government claims it is the first in the country to introduce an official “quiet neighbourhood” evaluation system, which is designed to stimulate the development of a “peaceful and harmonious” social environment through community guidelines and regular inspections.

On China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo, netizens voiced their support for Xiamen’s policy, saying it should be rolled out nationwide. Many also added that 7am is too early to allow the activity: “Are you serious? When I go to work on weekdays, I always wake up after 7am,” wrote one Weibo user. Another said the pastime “severely affects” residents in their neighbourhood.

In fact, the central government did weigh regulating square dancing at a national level in 2021, including introducing fines and penalties. This came after an unsuccessful attempt by the national sports regulator to nudge citizens toward creating less noise pollution in 2017. The 2021 proposal also appears to have had little impact, having possibly been shelved amid pandemic difficulties.

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• The Chinese food delivery giant has taken the decision to sponsor an amateur esports team whose members have an average age of 55 years old.
• While leveraging the sensation around esports during the KPL Spring 2023 season, Meituan revived the reverse marketing strategy that made it a social media sensation during the last World Cup.
• The engagement with those senior gamers was viewed as a “heart-warming collaboration”, which harnessed the heart of China’s young esports enthusiasts.

Labelled as one of the most prominent youth subcultures, esports has long been synonymous with young people. However, Meituan, the Chinese food delivery giant wanted to tell people otherwise by becoming a sponsor of Team Xiyanghong (Evening Glow) – an esports team consisting of a group of senior esports lovers with an average age of 55 years old.

Breaking the age stereotype in esports

Among them, there is a gaming live streamer, a security guard, a retired bank manager, and an uncle that has been battling cancer for several years. The video game playing experience amongst these self-trained gamers, more specifically, Honor of Kings varies too, ranging from one year to five years and nine months at the longest.

The sponsorship came after Meituan’s announcement in February to become a partner for this year’s KPL (King Professional League, the highest tournament of Honor of Kings). This coincided with the KPL Spring 2023 season, during which, Team Xiyanghong went up against Nanjing Hero Jiujing – a professional esports club that assembled a team of players from the post-90s, which is a stark contrast in ages.

The decision to provide funding was coupled with a short promotional video that saw vlogging, and playing Chinese chess and Taichi as some favourite pastimes of the five elders. The scene then transitioned into the esports battlefield, connecting their real-life interests with their shared passion for video games.

Meanwhile, a documentary recording the one-month focused training for these senior players was also produced. Viewers were touched by the resilience and persistent pursuit of esports demonstrated in the behind-the-scenes story and called the effort “a heart-warming collaboration”. Meituan, in the meantime, was regarded as “a brand with feelings and emotions”.

Winning over young people through converse marketing

The dual contrast where the elderly meets esports and the old faced up to the young drew in curious eyes, with the video attracting over one million views on the microblogging site Weibo. This is much higher than the average views of some tens of thousands that other videos shared by KPL’s official Weibo account received.

Although many had anticipated the loss of Team Xiyanghong, netizens were fascinated not only by Meituan’s act of sponsoring an amateur team but also by the courage of taking on challenges faced by those elders, which is in line with the indomitable spirit of esports.

By doing so, Meituan was able to deliver the message that the enthusiasm for esports should not be restrained by ages, and in fact, through the shared interest in video games, the generational gap can be filled. As a result, the move surprisingly helped Meituan win over the young generations as many flocked to social media platforms including Weibo, Douyin (Chinese TikTok) and sports and esports streaming platforms Hupu and Huya to show their support for these silver-haired gamers, furthering the spread of its brand voice.

This is not the first time Meituan leveraged a contrasting marketing strategy. During last year’s FIFA World Cup, the company’s decision to sponsor team Ghana – a team which drew little attention from other sponsors, therefore, raised many eyebrows. However, it was the counter marketing approach that made Meituan a social media sensation.

It was reported that the event hashtag “Fashion clash between Ghana team’s jersey and Meituan’s uniform” garnered accumulated views of over hundreds of millions of reads on Weibo, while relevant video content attracted more than tens of thousands of views on the viral short video app Douyin.

By reviving the reverse marketing practice, Meituan once again successfully hooked the public’s attention. Capitalising on the unconventional approach to esports marketing with a focus on senior players, Meituan flavoured the endeavour with a more human edge. Having created an emotional connection between the elder and younger gaming enthusiasts, it also allowed Meituan to leverage China’s continued esports phenomenon more effectively.

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The official live broadcast opened with the grandmothers strutting the runway in a cheongsam show which dazzled viewers. Under the slogan “We’re always interesting” (which was also a Weibo hashtag that nearly garnered 3 million views), the broadcast featured a wide variety of products from beauty and makeup to fitness, smart home devices and even adult diapers to cater to the silver economy’s needs. 

From the anchors to product selection and interactive design, Tmall combines the professionalism of the silver-haired anchors with the platform’s insights into the hottest trends. As such, this broadens the boundaries of the live stream’s content and creates a focus on public attention including social events that open the floor to discussions on topics related to the elderly.

At present, China’s population is ageing faster than the rest of the world. According to the latest census released in 2021, people aged 60 and above in China have reached over 260 million, and those aged 65 and above account for 13.5% of the entire population, higher than the world’s average level of 9.3%. By 2050, the population of retirement age is expected to climb up to 39%.

A growing elderly consumer base implies rising demands, especially in the virtual world. According to the China Internet Network Information Centre’s latest report, people aged 50 and above accounted for 28% of China’s 1.01 billion online users in 2021, up by 5.2% compared to the previous year. The report also showed that 86.39% of Chinese elderly users used entertainment applications in 2021 – a significant rise from 16.38% in 2017 – to watch videos (90%) and read articles and e-books (80%).

All in all, Tmall’s latest venture into live streaming aptly captures China’s rising silver economy as it attempts to meet the elderly’s shopping needs.

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• In its wholesome CNY short film, homegrown beauty brand Florasis not only taps into China’s “Silver Economy”, but also attempts to leverage the intergenerational relationships between China’s Gen Z and their grandparents.
• China’s silver-haired demographic consisting of those aged 60 and older is on the rise and is expected to reach 330 million by 2030, making up 25.5% of the total population.

Chinese New Year is a celebration that never fails to evoke feelings of love, hope and togetherness in families who reunite for the holidays. It is unsurprising, therefore, that brands would hop on the seemingly saturated family-themed CNY marketing bandwagon. However, one Chinese brand managed to stand out from the rest and speak directly to the hearts of each generation.

Hailing from Hangzhou, the Chinese professional makeup brand Huaxizi (known as Florasis in English), set out to create a holiday advertisement from a simple concept: red lipstick.

In its heartfelt short film advertisement, the red lipstick serves as a time machine that retrieves beautiful memories from the grandmother, who when initially asked by her grandmother if she wanted to apply makeup, quickly refused since she was “much too old”. However, with some time and convincing, the granddaughter manages to get her to try on the red lipstick, which allows her to relive some sweet memories of when she was young, thus recreating the beauty of the past.

Not only does Florasis speak to all generations of women, but it also sends a patriotic message as Chinese families reunited for the first time since the outset of the pandemic. Bearing the slogan “Seeing National Colours Again”, the makeup brand places an emphasis on the cherished “sense of ritual” which includes getting all dolled up for the holiday season.

China’s “Silver Economy” and how it targets young consumers

The ad also shows the importance of telling a compelling story that resonates with customers’ emotions. Specifically, Florasis’ short film attempts to leverage the intergenerational relationships between China’s Gen Z and their grandparents. Growing up under China’s one-child policy, many Gen Z-ers spent their childhoods with their grandparents and are generally more attached to them than their own parents. Florasis’ senior campaign, therefore, mainly targeted young consumers, and did so with flying colours.

In addition, the advertisement taps into China’s rising “Silver Economy”, where elders have seen a growing influence on China’s consumer market, especially within the fashion industry. One contributing factor to its growth stems from a short video phenomenon in which Chinese elders have become social media sensations. This silver-haired demographic of those aged 60 and older is expected to reach 330 million by 2030, making up 25.5% of the total population according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

On the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the advertisement managed to amass a staggering 17.77 million views and accumulate over 24,000 likes, 1316 comments and 673 shares. Meanwhile, the hashtags “May love and beauty reunite in the New Year” and “Years can’t take away their beauty” garnered over 50 million views and 47 million views respectively. Netizens praised the heartfelt and empowering messages from the makeup brand’s short holiday film.

Of course, the success of the advertisement can be largely attributed to its ability to tap into its viewers’ emotions. Yet another reason is due to the appearance of female talk show host and travel blogger Fang Qi, who played the role of the granddaughter in the short film. On Weibo, she has over 1 million followers, and with such a large following it is safe to assume that it propelled the wholesome video even further.

Founded in March 2017, the cosmetics company has made great strides on its journey to conquering the cosmetics market. In 2019, sales of Florasis ranked among the top 10 cosmetics brands on Tmall, accumulating more than 1 billion RMB (147 million USD). In 2020, the brand reportedly reached 3 billion RMB (441 million USD) in sales, exceeding those of Perfect Diary, another top Chinese makeup brand in the market. The brand hopes to help Chinese women feel as beautiful as possible no matter how they do their makeup.

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China’s population is ageing faster than the rest of the world, and it does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. By 2050, the population of retirement age is estimated to climb up to 39%. The demographic dividend is disappearing; the two generations that once contributed to that advantage are now getting old. For business owners, that implies a growing elderly consumer base and enormous rising demands, particularly in the virtual world.

According to the China Internet Network Information Centre’s latest report, people aged 50 and above account for 28% of China’s 1.01 billion online users in 2021, up by 5.2% compared to the previous year. The report also shows that 86.39% of Chinese elderly users use entertainment applications in 2021 – a significant rise from 16.38% in 2017 – to watch videos (90%) and read articles and e-books (80%).

Another report released by the Paper indicates that around 100,000 elderly users spend over 10 hours a day on Qu Toutiao, a popular content aggregator app. Gaming is also gaining popularity amongst Chinese older people – 4.6% of the 554 million Chinese video game players are over 55 years old. A 62-year-old player even became a social influencer with over 1.15 million fans on Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) for playing Honour of Kings, a mobile game similar to League of Legends.

As the older population continuously grows, greater demands in healthcare will be created, alongside a new market in age-friendly technology that can be used to meet the elderly’s needs in socialising, entertainment, shopping, and other daily activities.

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After many months of waiting, Xiaohongshu’s application for registration of Laohongshu (literally means Old Red Book) has finally got a green light. The update has drawn massive media attention at home, due to its implication of a shrewd move by this platform towards the “silver-haired economy”. More recently older generations have seen a boom on the internet, getting more tech-savvy during the pandemic, and so much so that a wave of influencers aged over 55 have started to surface.

The initial trademark application was made for scientific instruments and handed in June last year. Xiaohongshu accounted for the registration as a defensive action, as it had found many third parties were trying pre-emptively to register the trademark of Laohongshu. So, a defensive registration has been taken to prevent malicious squatters, however, the application was rejected by the authority last November.

But after a re-examination, it has now got a pass. Whilst originally used to stop infringement upon the brand this new trademark has had a life of its own with the development and strategy teams respectively, with the new platform being the culmination of that work.

Despite Xiaohongshu’s account, public speculation has gone beyond a defensive action, with the speculation not being idle. It all started when a new app called Youyou Video was launched in June, around the same time when the trademark application was filed. The app shows a dedication to the middle-to-elite-class elder female users with features such as enlarged fonts, audio comments and provides them with feeds including tutorials on age-reducing dressing and makeup.

The rationale does not seem to be clear until you dig deeper. The production company of Youyou Video (Hongshu Information Technology Shanghai Co., Ltd.) has an equity relationship with Xiaohongshu Technology Co., Ltd. In addition, the supervisor of the former is also the head of Xiaohongshu’s mobile terminal technology, as according to the AgeClub Investigation (a Chinese research institute specialising in commercial innovation of the elderly industry). The video app is, therefore, believed to be an experimental field for Xiaohongshu to stretch its arm into the elderly market, something that is still in its infancy when it comes to digital platforms.

China’s elders are projected to reach 500 million in the next couple of decades. They are the generation now catching up on social media and showing an increasing presence, especially on short-video platforms. With the population growing and more to land on the digital landscape, Chinese elders are understandably becoming a new market that Internet companies like Xiaohongshu would crave.

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• China’s largest untapped market opportunity for foreign brands is not its young, but its seniors
• Projected to reach 500 million in the next couple of decades, China’s elderly will redefine the world with their spending power
• China Ping’An shines the spotlight on older people doing incredible things for their age – or could they be the new normal?

If China’s population of over 60s were to band together and form their own country, they would be the fifth most populous country in the world – at 264 million, just behind Indonesia and not far behind the United States.

Yet, this pales in comparison to what will happen in 20 to 30 years. Experts are forecasting China’s population of over 60s to increase to over 500 million. That is massive, and as of yet for foreign brands, sorely untapped, market opportunity.

China’s old are traditionally depicted as affable folks dancing in squares, huddling around a chess table, or practicing tai chi in the park. But that is not the full picture.

Indeed, the elderly are not immune to the rise of individualism in China and the nationwide search for what being Chinese means: more and more are starting to pursue activities they had put on the back burner while they were busy working and raising kids.

Having access to savings, as well as sitting on valuable real estate acquired years before China’s vertiginous rise in house prices, China’s elderly population appears to be the one segment of the Chinese public that companies pay the least attention to – and the one with the most untapped potential.

But not all companies are blind to this societal shift.

What is this campaign?

China Ping’An, one of the country’s leading insurers, released a campaign that shines a spotlight on older people going against the grain and proving that age is just a word.

In the short film, we see a few 60 and 70-year-olds, who appear to lead normal lives – or rather, what society thinks normal life should look like for old people. As the film progresses, we are introduced to their real lives – whether that be playing jazz in a band, or dancing ballet, or flying airplanes.

In the end, we are asked to consider this question: at what age should we think about what a fulfilling life looks like? It turns out, it is never too late to start living one.

Why is it creative?

China’s ads aimed at its aging population normally feature smiling elders surrounded by their families. We rarely, if ever, see ads or films where old people are shown as empowered and independent individuals.

Furthermore, in their daily lives, they are often beholden to their children and grandchildren, effectively in a sort of work-retirement mode where they take on household duties that overworked Chinese parents don’t have time for.

Ping’An instead chose to showcase elderly people in a way that demonstrates their individuality and the fact that they are more than just a family add-on. The company wants us to see that they also have interests, passions, and skills, and thus, much to contribute to the world.

How does it connect to Chinese people and culture?

More and more Chinese adults are opting to live separately from their parents, who traditionally provided support with housework and childrearing. These elderly parents are thus faced with a simple question: what to do with this newly found free time?

Ping’An realised that the ways in which older people choose to spend their time are more varied than what we might be accustomed to thinking. From running marathons to attending university, China’s elderly are truly making the most of their years. But there is also the feeling that this depiction isn’t solely for the sake of selling more insurance: rather, it is a reflection of where China’s population is inevitably heading.

As today’s 30 and 40-year-olds start aging, exposed to world travel, luxury products, and wellness, they will want to bring what they have experienced in their younger years to their silver years. And after all, why wouldn’t they?

Clearly, not all elderly people in China are keen to go scuba diving, start conglomerates, or develop life-saving vaccines. But companies operating in China should pay attention to some simple facts: when you have lots of people with time and money on their hands, they will inevitably start looking for things to do, buy, and experience.

The challenge for companies will be to provide products and services that don’t patronise or belittle these elders. Rather, brands should see them as the evolution of today’s young people, with the understanding that all their dreams, interests, and passions don’t die with maturity – they live on.

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Many Chinese seniors used the internet on their phones for the first time amidst the pandemic. From generating a Health Code as a passport for indoor public areas, to social distancing by ordering and paying online, the elderly had no choice but to learn how to go online before actually going anywhere. However, the complexities of phone applications left most of them struggling to continue a normal life.

To solve the issue, last December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered 43 of the most used applications to take the lead adapting to the needs of elderly users, including WeChat, Taobao, Douyin (the Chinese mainland version of TikTok), and Tencent Maps.

Following the government’s requirements, major platforms such as Alipay, Youku, Ximalaya and WeChat, have made strong efforts to become age-friendly. But the problem is they haven’t gone further than making the font bigger and the colours brighter. There is still a need for tools that can make it easier to navigate on the apps, by, for instance, integrating a voice assistant. Some Chinese media also pointed out that more attention should go to protecting seniors from falling for scams and advertising fraud due to a lack of internet literacy.

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QuestMobile’s “2020 Silver-Haired Population Economic Insight Report” shows that netizens over the age of 50 spend an average of 4.39 hours a day on their mobile phones. In addition, the “2020 Elderly Internet Use Report” highlights that more than 100,000 elderly people are online for at least 10 hours a day.

Easy-to-understand short videos are particularly popular among middle-aged and elderly people and they are also accessible to illiterate rural residents.

As well as consuming content, silver-haired Internet users are also becoming content creators. In recent years, KOLs have dominated the Internet and become a source of income for people from all works of life. Indeed, many elderly people based in rural areas have turned to short videos and livestreams to make a living.

More and more elderly KOLs are active on Douyin and Kuaishou, and they have even become an important sub-category in the platform’s content library. Silver-haired KOLs mainly focus on two types of content: breaking stereotypes about the elderly and daily life videos, such as cooking and health tips.

However, there have been concerns about the conditions that elderly KOLs are working in. According to Sina, many Internet celebrity incubators are now targeting the elderly.

Recently, several elderly KOLs based in rural areas have appeared tired while livestreaming on Douyin late at night. There have been questions about whether their ‘poor circumstances’ are being exploited to earn money on live broadcasts.

Short videos showing the elderly lighting firecrackers tied to themselves, and eating light bulbs and cacti have also featured on platforms. These shocking, yet eye-catching, videos bring in a large number of views and, hence, revenue. Some netizens have raised concerns that the older generation is more likely to be taken advantage of on the Internet.

Read more about the silver-haired generation:

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