The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2019–2022
NEIWAI's 'No Body Is Nobody' films six real bodies to reset China's underwear ads
NEIWAI casts six real, imperfect bodies — scars, tummies, a 58-year-old — in its 2020 spring film and ignites China's body-diversity ad debate.
NEIWAI (内外)
What it had to solve
Founded online in 2012 and known for wireless bras, Shanghai brand NEIWAI was growing fast, but Chinese underwear advertising still revolved around thin, retouched bodies. Its 2020 spring/summer range was designed for different body shapes, and the brand wanted a campaign that matched the product idea.
How it works
When the Shanghai lingerie brand NEIWAI (内外) planned its 2020 spring/summer campaign, Chinese underwear advertising still relied almost exclusively on thin, retouched models. The brand, founded online in 2012 and known for wireless bras, was simultaneously developing a range designed for different body shapes, so in July 2019 it started a Body Diversity project with the theme 'NO BODY IS NOBODY' (没有一种身材，是微不足道的).
Instead of casting professionals, NEIWAI recruited ordinary women through Weibo and WeChat, collected their stories, and conducted nearly 19 interviews around the shoot. Photographer Luo Yang (罗洋) shot six women in January 2020: scoliosis surgery at age 13 left Georgina with a permanent scar; Japanese single mother Nami carries jellyfish-sting scars; Julie is tired of being judged for a large bust; Nai Ping has been asked whether she 'even developed'; Reli gained weight after puberty; and 58-year-old Ma Jie refuses to let age decide her life.
The result was a brand film plus a documentary about the shoot, released in late February 2020 around International Women's Day. The Chinese and English copy were written to mean slightly different things — an unusual choice for a Chinese brand — and the slogan was put directly onto the product range. Campaign China and Chinese fashion press covered it as one of the first mainstream Chinese campaigns to put real, 'imperfect' bodies at the centre of underwear advertising.
The project did not end with one film: NEIWAI kept 'NO BODY IS NOBODY' running for three years, deepening the theme in 2021 and closing it in 2022, its tenth anniversary, with photographer Luo Yang documenting 30 women and a new Yunduo (云朵) product line, turning a single creative idea into a durable brand platform.
Why it lands
- Real, unretouched bodies made the claim 'designed for different bodies' visible and checkable; a retouched campaign would have contradicted the product.
- Recruiting and interviewing ordinary women produced authentic stories — scars, age, flat chests — that scripted casting could not manufacture.
- Releasing around International Women's Day placed the message inside a national conversation already about women's roles and bodies.
- The slogan worked as both advertising copy and product-line promise, so the campaign converted directly into commerce.
What it did
The campaign was widely discussed as a rare move for Chinese advertising and covered by international trade press, and the slogan became a multi-year brand platform: 2021's follow-up season and a 2022 final season that documented 30 women, alongside product lines sized for different bodies.
What you can take
Match the medium to the product claim: if you design bras for every body, the ad must show every body — real, unretouched people make the product promise feel true.
Since then
The project ran annually through 2022 — the 2021 season 'The Small Is Worth Mentioning; No Distinction Between You and Me' (微而足道，无分你我) and the final season 'The Path of Body and Mind; Seeing the Small to Know the Significant' (身心之路，见微知著), in which Luo Yang photographed 30 women — and influenced a wave of body-positive lingerie and sportswear advertising in China. NEIWAI continued growing from an online underwear seller into a lifestyle brand, and 'NO BODY IS NOBODY' became shorthand in Chinese marketing for the body-diversity turn.
Sources
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