On July 12th, when its 20th anniversary coincided with the Olympics Games, Chando, a Chinese beauty brand, released a short video promoting their new high-end Moisturizing Series cream and a surprise gift box made in collaboration with Tmall. (Read more about TMall Heybox).
With the slogan “自然而燃 ” (Burn naturally), Chando plays on the idiom: “自然而然” referring to something that happens naturally, spontaneously. The character “燃” (Rán) means “ignite or burn” and has the same pronunciation as the character “然” which happens to be part of the idiom and the brand name (自然堂).
Chando invited 9 Chinese female athletes to take part in the short video. Among them were Wu Minxia, a five-time Olympic Gold medallist, and Sun Yiwen, who recently got an Olympic gold medal in a fencing category.
To the ad’s purpose is to combat the stereotype that female athletes are not beautiful. A Chinese athlete states “有人说:女运动员不好看，谁说的，请看好” (There are people that say: Female athletes are not beautiful. Who said that? Please look closely)
Chando wants to challenge the Chinese narrow standards of thin and delicate being the only form of beauty. They reveal the beauty of strong women with the help of Chinese female athletes.
Cosmetics commercials are generally bright and colorful and the spokespersons are all actresses. But the purpose of this ad is to feature women who don’t pamper themselves, don’t have manicured nails, don’t get cosmetics surgery, rather their beauty comes from their sculpted and talented bodies.
Thus, the main message of the campaign: natural is beautiful and every woman can be the best version of herself.
Chando conveys the idea that a glamorous lifestyle is not the only way to stay beautiful. In doing so, it empowers women to focus less on abiding by narrow beauty standards and to pursue their dreams.
Author: Oriane Corral
