We forced our intern to watch 48 CNY ads. These are the 6 that dongdong her chiang

Love ’em or hate ’em, CNY ads have become an integral part of the celebrations; whether it’s between the Chinese New Year variety shows playing on TV, or that 5 seconds you’re forced to watch on YouTube if you refuse to spend your angpau money on Premium.

But at Cilisos, we believe that some ads are worth the watch. In fact, we believe it so much that we forced Wee, our new intern, to find these ads and watch them. By our cutoff date on Wednesday (Feb 7th), she’d found 48 ads. Here’s the full list.

To keep things fair, we used the same methodology as last year – She would watch all 48 ads the night before, go to bed, and note down which still left an impression on her in the morning. You may also notice that Wee didn’t write this article, and that’s because she quit got the rest of the week off for her troubles.

So, here are our top 6 CNY ad picks for 2024, in no particular order:

1. Etiqa – Further, Together

While there’s a lot of focus on family and festivities in CNY ads, Etiqa turned that trope on its lion dance head with this one. This ad focuses on one thing – the importance of eating as a family – but also carries the message that family is what you make of it.

There’s no overt advertising here, and you can just sit back and enjoy a well-produced, well-acted short story. Also, although it’s about a team of relay runners, it was the PJK teacher who was the absolute MVP.

2. RHB Group – Acceptance

Sometimes, you can’t help but question the authenticity of “true story” ads, where you watch this inspirational story with inspirational narration about an inspirational person…. but it ends without you knowing who that person actually is. All you know is that it’s “based on a true story”.

However, RHB did an exceptional job with this one. It covers the experience of being a black sheep, misunderstood by family just for being different. It’s especially poignant that that difference is Autism – something you don’t expect to see in a CNY ad. On top of the already heavy topic, it also briefly focuses on how autism shows up differently in girls, and how it affects traditional social expectations of them.

We’re not gonna spoil it, but there’s an amazing fourth wall break that tells you beyond a measure of a doubt that this was, indeed, based on a true story.

3. Watsons – Enter the Dragons

Okaylah, after two tearjerkers, it’s time for some lighthearted fun. Watsons has always made flashy, enjoyable ads with the best attention to detail that we’ve seen (just look at the dragon wall in this one). However, they didn’t make our list last year because some of the other ads has stories that left a stronger impression.

This year though, they knocked it out of the park with the same level of production quality and a storyline that’s reminiscent of old HongKong CNY comedy movies. They even included a Raya joke, which we didn’t see in any of the other ads.

4. Pepsi – Finish the Unfinished

Pepsi may have overlapped Chinese New Year with New Year by bringing in resolutions that we’ve failed to keep, but we’ll give them a pass on that. The ad quite creatively uses the Year of the Dragon to emphasize the saying “Got head, got tail” to highlight how we can lose sight of reaching our goals (or resolutions).

But that isn’t the main message. The main message is that we constantly go from open house to open house opening drinks and never finishing them; leading to waste. As our favorite Canadian Schwarma Man says, Don’t forget za Bebsi.

5. McDonald’s – The Middle Child

This one has the best pacing of the lot. It takes its time telling the story about a jade bracelet and a middle child, and we appreciate that the shorter Part 1 ends on enough of a cliffhanger that makes you want to watch Part 2.

Looking back, the jade bracelet might be an allegory for their Prosperity Burger, but that’s just a theory… a film theory!  

6. CelcomDigi – Rhythm of Destiny

Any adult who had ambitions to be anything other than a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or accountant can relate to this. Except, instead of a kid, we have a CGI dragon who wants nothing more than to play the Chinese drums much to the displeasure of his parents.

You already know how the story will go midway through, but what stuck to us here was use of blue and yellow/gold color schemes in every.single.scene. It took us almost till the end to notice it, and now we can’t help but admire the dedication. We see what you did there, CelcomDigi.

7. Cadbury – 与您一起回馈一点善意

After days of pilipala pilipala and dongdong chiangs, the last thing you’d want to see is more of that when you’re relaxing in front of the screen. Cadbury’s ad makes masterful use of silence and we have to admit we also didn’t see that ending coming.

Bonus mentions – wo AI ni

With the AI revolution shaping a significant portion of 2023, Eu Yan Sang and Mr. DIY incorporated AI into their ads this year. It’s also kinda amusing that both used the same play on words – that AI sounds like “love” in Mandarin.

Mr.DIY took the route of a grandpa using technology to help him connect with the younger generation with endearing results.

Eu Yan Sang went a small step further with AI by referencing Adobe Illustrator.

Let us know which ads in this list you “ai” the most!