The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2020
NEIWAI 2020 film: 6 women, body diversity, self-acceptance
On Women's Day 2020, NEIWAI's film with 6 diverse women went viral overnight.
NEIWAI (内外)
What it had to solve
Around International Women's Day in 2020, domestic underwear brand NEIWAI (内外) launched its 2020 Spring/Summer film; before that, underwear ads were almost always a fixed formula of 'celebrity + perfect body + sexiness,' and the brand wanted to change how it spoke to female consumers.
How it works
During International Women's Day in 2020, NEIWAI (内外) released its 2020 Spring/Summer film To My Body (致,我的身体): theme 'NO BODY IS NOBODY (no body shape is insignificant)', 6 women of different ages and body shapes appeared, facing the camera and saying 'a flat chest really carries no burden', 'I am 58, and I still love my body', 'scars complete my life line'.
The plan began in July 2019: the brand decided to create a special plan on Body Diversity, insisting on 'designing for different body shapes and also looking forward to every authentic performance', and in January 2020 it was shot by photographer Luo Yang, with participants including young girls, mothers with babies, and a 58-year-old woman.
Opposite to the fixed underwear advertising formula of 'celebrity + perfect body + sexiness', the film shifted the focus from 'models' to 'the real self', showing wrinkles, scars, and excess flesh openly; the Meihua (梅花网) case page received more than 60,000 reads, the short film went viral overnight, and it sparked public discussion about women's body diversity.
Why it lands
- Underwear advertising for the first time aimed the camera at 'imperfect' real bodies, overturning the category template
- Copy such as 'I am 58, and I still love my body' turned individual experience into a public declaration
- Without celebrities or sexy imagery, the brand completed its positioning through attitude
- Real body narratives made female consumers feel represented, and discussion spread spontaneously
What it did
The short film went viral overnight and became a landmark event in Chinese internet discussions of 'body diversity'; the Meihua (梅花网) case page received more than 60,000 reads; afterwards NEIWAI turned 'NO BODY IS NOBODY' into a brand project for several consecutive years and prompted a number of brands to follow real-body narratives.
What you can take
Category ads often overuse standard answers; real diverse bodies differentiate. Sustained work on women's issues builds brand equity.
Since then
After To My Body (致,我的身体), NEIWAI (内外) turned 'NO BODY IS NOBODY' into a brand project sustained for several years, updating one season each year and inviting increasingly diverse bodies to participate; in 2020, Faye Wong (王菲) became the brand's global ambassador, the brand's 'body freedom' positioning gradually took shape, and more brands in China began replacing perfect models with real-body narratives.
Sources
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