Chinese comedian and actor Jia Bing (贾冰) has been the face of over a dozen ad campaigns, ads and commercials since last year. With his signature Northeast China humour and consistent performance, he has become increasingly popular among consumers. Some commentators are even questioning if he has saturated the space with his constant presence. Similarly, singer Tengger has been viewed as “typecast” in same-y adverts. Why and if it’d last are the most important questions here.
Jia Bing: the trinity of an actor
Jia Bing is typically utilised in three ways: making use of his name, mostly through puns, letting him do his “comedy” thing or paying tribute to his iconic role in a viral TV series.
What’s in a name? There’s another opinion piece here, as using a celebrity name as the main anchor for a campaign is especially popular this year. The “battle of the colours” between delivery companies (JD.com, Ele.me, and Meituan) uses celebrities associated with their respective theme colour. Red, blue and yellow was a prime example of this.
Using a celebrity name as the main anchor for a campaign is especially popular this year
Jia Bing, with his given name “冰” meaning ice, has been understandably very busy this summer. From “sleep environment” lifestyle brand Just Chill, to Yili’s ice cream brand Gemice, all the way to Coca-Cola, brands are leveraging Jia’s icy name for their products.
Supplement brand Wonderlab and Meituan, on the other hand, made use of Jia’s comedic talents to create comedy-inspired campaigns. Even more brands, including Meituan and its hotel-booking branch, asked Jia to pay tribute to his mobster role in the viral television series The Knockout. While it was a departure for the comedian at the time, it became one of his most memorable roles on TV.
Some advertising practitioners feel that the Jia Bing ads are becoming homogeneous, especially the pun-based and mobster-themed ones, which are hardly distinguishable from each other, and that the space feels highly saturated. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that it’s only saturated to those who watch the marketing and advertisements closely as professionals. There are indeed good ads that feature Jia. For example, the Vivo ad that features Jia’s poster flying around different environments to symbolise Vivo X Fold5’s being thin, light and versatile.
Tengger: more than a singer?
The singer Tengger, on the other hand, has his popularity steeped in meme and, surprisingly, anime, comics, game and light novel (ACGN) culture. Since last year, he has appeared in several high-profile campaigns, collaborating with big names like Luckin Coffee, Pokémon, NIO and McDonald’s.
Like the Jia Bing adverts, ads featuring Tengger are also rather homogenous, usually showing him singing a widely known song, whether it’s a popular one like for NIO, or the theme song from the first season of the Pokémon anime series. The McDonald’s collaboration took it one step further by composing a new song, but it was still based on the Ultraman franchise, which Tengger performed as the jingle. In this regard, the Luckin Coffee campaign stands out because it uses Tengger as a meme and created physical stickers based on messaging app stickers.
Tengger leans more toward “subculture” with the “abstract” elements of his memes
Like Jia Bing, Tengger’s adverts also embrace the “abstract” humour of meme culture. However, unlike Jia Bing, whose ads mostly exist in a more mainstream environment, Tengger leans more toward “subculture” with the “abstract” elements of his memes. What’s similar between the two is that when they show up in an app, you almost know what to expect. Breaking that mould, therefore, is how you make your ad memorable.
But why?
Typecasting isn’t new, but having the same celebrity perform variations of the same idea multiple times is uncommon. This may be due to two reasons: the need for novelty and the limited room for innovation. This seemingly contradictory dynamic has given rise to the many faces of Jia Bing and similar “live in studio” Tengger ads.
Just like the waves of collaborations since 2023 and the endless puns today, and the “emotional value” everyone is experiencing, advertisers are often quick to chase the latest trend for fear of missing out. Each of these trends becomes a winning formula for others to learn from, until they saturate the market and lead to fatigue.
But fatigue is sometimes, like with Jia Bing, only felt by professionals, as it’s not necessarily saturating the casual viewers’ space. That is the reason why, while HeyTea has paused collaborations since the year began, Luckin Coffee is doubling down on the strategy with the latest viral Duolingo team-up.
It’s the same with the concern of overusing certain celebrities, as even Jia Bing hasn’t hit saturation for casual viewers. Other familiar faces in ad campaigns like comedian Fu Hang or actor Jiang Qiming, who appear in more diverse roles, are likely far from creating fatigue for most viewers.