Classic Chinese television commercials

Little Jackie Chan

This month's issue of FHM has an interesting feature that introduces ten well-known TV commercials from the past two decades or so.

All of the brands on the list were white-hot for a time, but their best days are behind them now. Some of the companies went bust. Others are still around, although many people probably thought they disappeared a long time ago.

Despite all the 80s nostalgia and the wealth of content available on Chinese video hosting sites these days, many of the commercials on the list can't be found online. The ones we were able to find are shown below:

1. 燕舞收录机
Yanwu Radio-Cassette

This ad, featuring the slogan "Yanwu, every song is a feeling," ran in 1987:

There's another version here that shows close-ups of the machine; unfortunately, it's taken from an advertising retrospective so there's voiceover narration.

Miao Haizhong, who later went on to star in costume dramas, was reportedly paid 10 yuan to be the "Yanwu kid." The FHM article also reports a rumor that the Jiangsu Yancheng Wireless Factory spent nearly 2 million yuan marketing this campaign. The brand went bust in 1998, and former employees have been unsuccessfully trying to resurrect it ever since.

2. 南方黑芝麻糊
Nanfang Black Sesame Paste

An ad from the 1990s expresses nostalgia for a simpler time:

The company, based in Rongxian, Guangxi Autonomous Region, made reconstituted thick sesame congee a popular treat until oatmeal from the west captured the attention of health-conscious consumers.

3. 商务通
Hi-Tech Wealth Smartphone

A multi-function PDA-like phone whose ads blanketed TV at the turn of the millennium.

The original ads, with actor Pu Cunxin and popular TV host Li Xiang, aren't online, but Pu stayed on as spokesman and you can see some of his subsequent ads. Those two examples are typical of the over-the-top, extended commercials and infomercials that Hi-Tech Wealth is known for. Its latest ad is for an innovative "My Phone":

4. 孔府家酒
Kongfujia Liquor

Produced in Qufu, home of Confucius, this brand poured 30.79 million yuan into CCTV advertising in 1994. The following commercial promotes the liquor as a symbol of reunion between parents and their children who've gone abroad:

5. 爱多VCD
Aiduo VCD Player

This company's most famous ad is a brand-awareness spot starring Jackie Chan running through the rain, and features the slogan "We're always working hard" 我们一直在努力!

Aiduo Electronics was founded in 1995 and made a splash in the marketplace by buying up high-visibility ads for enormous sums of money. In 1997 it paid 210 million yuan for the prime CCTV ad spot.

Founder Hu Zhibiao was jailed in 2000 for fraud (he was released in 2006). The company sold off its trademark to a former supplier, which became involved in a tax fraud scandal in 2004. There's an interesting analysis of the company's implosion here.

6. 健力宝
Jianlibao

A domestic soft-drink brand founded in 1984, it was known as "China's Magic Water." Its early TV ads don't seem to be online, but the original slogan, "If you want a healthy body, drink Jianlibao" (要想身体好，请喝健力宝), lasted relatively unchanged well into this decade.

The brand flourished for a while from the 80s to the mid-90s, but gradually fell behind Coke and Pepsi. A few years ago it launched a new line of drinks, The 5th Season, and this year it came out with "Jianlibao 1984," an update of its original formula with extra honey:

7. 小霸王学习机
Subor Learning Machine

Jackie Chan strikes again, this time in a commercial for a Subor Electronics computer that was marketed as an educational product. FHM suggests that the machine was probably more often used with game cartridges.

8. 奥妮皂角洗发浸膏
Oni Honeylocust Rinse

The 1994 commercial, which doesn't seem to be online, was epic: thundering horses, battle panoramas, weapons, old wise men, and shots of the Great Wall. It was an appeal to nationalist sentiment in the face of encroachment by foreign hair care products, as evidenced by the slogan: "The Great Wall will never fall; Domestic Products must strengthen themselves."

It worked for a little bit; by 1997 the company had a market share of 12.5%, second only to P&G. But financial contraints led it to cut back on marketing, and it eventually was divided into two parts and sold off to other domestic companies.

Another famous Oni commercial stars Chow Yun-fat in a touching story of love and loss:

Chow's a natural for shampoo ads, because his given name, 润发, can be read in simplified Chinese as "sleek hair."

9. 太阳神
Apollo

Mid-90s advertisements for this line of health tonics paved the way for Naobaijin and Huangjin Dadang.

The company had popular singer Mao Amin to sing their corporate anthem, which includes a clip of Dies Irae from Mozart's Requiem and repreats the refrain, "When the sun rises, our love will endure forever." Apollo sued Coca-Cola in 1996, alleging that the jingle was used improperly in a Sprite ad. The following clip lacks sound, but it's the only one that seems to be online.

10. 春都火腿肠
Chundu Sausages

Luoyang-based Chundu Foods is apparently to blame for those awful sausages that come wrapped in red plastic. Although they've largely been overtaken by Shineway's line of near-meat products since their heyday in the mid-90s, you can still find Chundu sausages on shelves in some parts of the country.

Image from Luoyang Evening Post