The American chipmaker Intel has teamed up with Chinese e-commerce site JD.com to promote the new Core Ultra series – Intel’s next generation of CPUs designed to power AI PCs. The campaign comes as Intel struggles to gain ground in the booming AI industry, whose growth relies on high-performance semiconductors.
For the campaign in tandem JD.com’s Cube New Product Day, Intel inserted its Core Ultra-powered laptops into dramatic scenes from classic Beijing operas. In each scenario, the ultra-fast processing power comes to the rescue as the characters find themselves in various humorous predicaments.
In one scenario lifted from Romance of the Western Chamber, the young scholar Zhang Sheng appears to forget his lines and ends up complementing his love interest, Cui Yingying, a little too uncouthly. Determined not to let the awkward moment fester, the matchmaker (红娘), who facilitates an illicit meeting between the pair in the original story, whips out an Intel Cote Ultra-powered laptop. Zhang Sheng then types his question into Intel’s AI assistant: “When encountering a high-born woman, what words should you use to express your ardour in a restrained manner?”. Finally, using the poetic AI-generated response, he utters the famous words his character must say to woo his love.
The creative campaign helped draw eyeballs to Intel’s new product on Chinese social media. The hashtag “When AIGC meets Beijing opera” (#当京剧遇上AIGC#) has garnered over 100 million views on the Twitter-like platform Weibo. The official Weibo account of Beijing Opera (中国京剧) also helped boost the campaign, sharing AI-generated images of opera characters.
