LiNing; Basketball Kungfu Demon Killer.

As seems the trend in China’s youth marketing; messages tend to focus on super-fantasy elements (check out a full article on this here).

So are these ads done well? I would say yes, when we consider our target audience: teenage Chinese boys. Basketball/hiphop is popular the world over, and mixing pop culture with ancient warfare imagery / demon battles does appeal to the “fantastic” side of the imagination.

The end branding result gives LiNing an almost “supernatural” appeal does it not? Cause not only can you play basketball, but suddenly you’re also a kungfu hero capable of destroying armies of bad guys (with a basketball).

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Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Shanghai, China
Creative Directors: Eddie Booth, Attlee Ku, Tao Lei
Art Directors: Huang Haibo, Kevin Wu, Ocean Ye, Ricky Xu, Mellow Yu, Gordon Wang
Copywriter: Ray Lei
Illustrators: Zhang Minsheng, Lu Min
Photographer: Adam
Published: January 2009

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