The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2021–2022
Tmall's 'Crabs' film retells the first-crab-eater legend for its 618 'try new' theme
For Tmall's 618 festival, Ogilvy Shanghai dramatized the legend of the first man to eat a crab — fear of the unknown, turned into a delicacy by one brave bite.
Tmall
What it had to solve
Tmall's mid-year 618 shopping festival is built on new products and new experiences. In 2021 its theme was the joy of trying the new, and the brand wanted that idea told as a story rather than a discount slogan. The material was a legend every Chinese audience knows: the official Baron Pax Xie, the first person ever to eat a crab.
How it works
Shopping-festival ads usually shout discounts. For 618 in 2021, Tmall did the opposite with a film built on an ancient Chinese legend: the story of the first person who ever ate a crab, an official the D&AD archive page calls Baron Pax Xie.
In the tale, people feared the 'nipper bugs' that overran the land until Xie studied the creatures, drove them off with fire and — to prove the fear groundless — took the first bite himself. That single bite turned a feared monster into a delicacy: what had been unknown became the crab on the table.
Ogilvy Shanghai told the story on two timelines, the ancient event and a modern storyteller passing the legend to children, cutting between them without a seam. The closing line said life rewards people willing to try the new — the exact theme of the festival — so the pioneer of crab became the patron saint of every shopper trying something for the first time.
Why it lands
- The legend is national shorthand for daring to try, so the audience already knows the moral before the film states it — no persuasion needed.
- The story itself shows fear converting into delight: one brave bite turns a feared creature into a delicacy, making the theme felt instead of asserted.
- Running the ancient tale against a modern narrator frames the myth as heritage being passed on, so the 'try the new' message lands in the present.
- At the peak discount moment of the year, Tmall spent its flagship film on a story rather than prices — the festival's theme became the film's theme.
What it did
The film became one of the most-shared pieces of China's 2021 618 season and took a D&AD Wood Pencil for art direction in 2022, entering the D&AD awards archive. The archive page records no separate reach or sales figures.
What you can take
A folk tale can carry a commercial message when its moral is the brand's promise: the crab legend says the brave discover rewards — what a 'try the new' festival needs.
Since then
The film anchored Tmall's 2021 618 storytelling around the 'new' theme and was recognized at the D&AD Awards 2022 with a Wood Pencil in art direction; the entry remains in the D&AD awards archive, which records no separate sales or reach data. Chinese marketing press counted it among the most striking 618 films of the year.
Sources
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