American fast-food chain KFC launched its 2025 Chinese New Year promotional video on 13 January, as a 15-day countdown to the biggest festival of the year amongst Chinese communities. The ad features Chinese table tennis athlete Sun Yingsha and Chinese Luxembourgish table tennis player Ni Xialian.
The video shows both table tennis players travelling back for Chinese New Year and enjoying family activities for the festival. The campaign’s hero product is the “ping ping pong gold bucket” from KFC, while the ad focuses on the tagline “ping ping pong pong New Year.” The “乒乒乓乓” or “ping ping pong pong” in the copy refers to the onomatopoeic name of table tennis and the sound of firecrackers and fireworks, a typical background noise during the CNY period.
At the end of last year, KFC announced that Sun, who won gold medals in the mixed doubles and women’s team, as well as silver in the women’s single, would be the new brand ambassador for the chain. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Sun Yingsha is KFC brand ambassador” (#孙颖莎代言肯德基#) has amassed 220 million views since launch. KFC also created a series of Sun Yingsha memes/stickers for messaging apps like WeChat.
For the Chinese New Year of the Snake, KFC also launched an updated version of its Pokémon collaboration which includes 5 Pokémon figures of popular characters such as Pikachu and Psyduck. It also collaborated with rural folk artists to create festive paintings to celebrate the Spring Festival.
Sun Yingsha, with her youthful image, has been a popular choice of brand ambassador for brands such as Olay and Tide. The positive and sometimes patriotic image, as well as strict management of athletes, often means less risk of controversy for brands.
