{"id":49498,"date":"2026-02-16T08:37:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daoinsights.com\/?p=49498"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:46:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:46:03","slug":"yili-winter-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daoinsights.com\/news\/yili-winter-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Yili artfully subverts the classic winter-sports ad\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When brands play the winter-sports card, the script is predictable: icy backdrops, fake snow, perhaps a slogan about resilience. Yili Group (\u4f0a\u5229)<\/a> has chosen a different tack for a tie-in with the Winter Olympics. In its latest ice-and-snow campaign, the company appoints stand-up comic Xu Zhisheng as its \u2018Chief Victory Officer\u2019 (\u4f0a\u5229\u5236\u80dc\u5b98), turning a pun into a positioning strategy. Zhisheng\u2019s name (\u5fd7\u80dc) echoes zhisheng<\/em> (\u5236\u80dc), meaning to secure victory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yili winter-sports ad comes in the form of a campaign film that opens with Xu as a high-performance winter-sports athlete. It\u2019s framed in the visual language of elite sport and looks like a conventional brand tribute, until the scene collapses.<\/strong> The athletic fantasy is revealed to be Xu daydreaming before an office meeting. His dream is cut short by a client call, and he wakes as an office drone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Yili<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Yili<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Yili<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Creative details reinforce the joke. At one point, Xu declares \u2018my Zhisheng is not ordinary,\u2019 then appears in the stadium stands in three forms \u2013 himself, a mascot and a miniature figurine \u2013 chanting \u2018aim for victory.\u2019 Even the end credits extend the gag, naming the plush character in sync with the storyline\u2019s timeline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of hiding the mechanics of endorsement, The Yili winter-sports ad pulls them into view. Contract discussion and casting logic pull brand rationale into view. The self awareness gives the ad a fourth dimension while Xu keeps the whole thing buoyant. Yili are masters at this. They\u2019ve been doing great ads with comedians this year, ads that allow humour to become differentiation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is less a sports ad than what Chinese netizens are calling a \u2018life ad\u2019 \u2013 an ad that layers fantasy and reality, misdirection and reveal<\/strong>. Beneath the comedy sits a familiar message: support for national sport and its athletes. But somehow by acknowledging the artifice of advertising, Yili makes that support feel less staged, and paradoxically more sincere.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When brands play the winter-sports card, the script is predictable: icy backdrops, fake snow, perhaps a slogan about resilience. Yili Group (\u4f0a\u5229) has chosen a different tack for a tie-in with the Winter Olympics. In its latest ice-and-snow campaign, the company appoints stand-up comic Xu Zhisheng as its \u2018Chief Victory Officer\u2019 (\u4f0a\u5229\u5236\u80dc\u5b98), turning a pun […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[69,62],"class_list":["post-49498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-industries-food-beverage","tag-news-marketing-branding","has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYili artfully subverts the classic winter-sports ad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Yili winter-sports campaign film subverts a classic ad format to push the dairy brand with some abstract comedy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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