The Banquet
"Asian Beauty"
Asience is a line of premium shampoo and hair care products sold in Japan by KAO Corp. Zhang Ziyi has been the face of Asience since the brand was launched in October 2003.
It has since become her most iconic promotional campaign, due to audacious and innovative marketing, including more than a dozen commercials based on a single evolving theme, hundred-foot high projections onto the Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel, and gigantic billboards in Tokyo's busiest shopping districts.
At the heart of Asience's campaign is the idea of "Asian Beauty" " The Asience brand takes as its role model women, seen as typifying an image of ‘Asian Beauty’, whose appearance embodies inner beauty or spiritual strength. The ‘Asian Beauty’ image, admired as a new standard of beauty around the world..."
In an interview, the campaign designer described his visionThe Asian Beauty conquers the world... I surround her [Ziyi] with other beautiful symbols, like nature, Japanese scenery, tropical flowers, and by choosing other pictures which I found beautiful, the whole program enhances itself. Any kind of combination between her, flowers, nature, architecture, it becomes one whole thing. What struck me [about her] is that she is extremely gracious, the extremely polite, patricial, like a dancer... it seems to me that, her being shy, but still you can still sense the strength and the character. Honestly, in 2004 I don't see any woman more beautiful, or who personifies the Asian Beauty more than her.
Commercials
Asience "Asian Beauty" series - Commericals that celebrate a new ideal of pan-Asian beauty. The first of these aired in October of 2003. |
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"Asian Beauty" con't - These are some of the most glamorous and flattering commercials Ziyi has made. Make sure to get #5, where she sings. Asian Beauty 3 - 2 MB swf |
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"Asian Beauty" con't - In the last of the Asian beauty series, Ziyi tosses away the famous red dress, leading to the new "Modern Spaces" theme. Asian Beauty 7 - 3 MB swf |
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Asience "Modern Spaces" - The Modern Spaces theme is based on sleeker, more modern black dresses, while Shower sets a new path. New Story Of Asian Beauty - 3 MB swf |
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Behind the scenes and Interview A behind the scenes "Making of" clip and and an interview with Ziyi. These were made at the very beginning of the Asience campaign. |
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Max Illusion Night
KAO celebrated it's 10th birthday by projecting giant images of Ziyi onto the Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel. The exhibition lasted for two nights, from October 29-30, 2004. Right click and choose play after the video is done loading. |
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Asience related news updates
04/09/06 - Asience has released a new "Asian Beauty" commercial for April. It was filmed in Rome back in December, a gallery of pictures from one of the shooting locations was posted back then. This is Ziyi's 13th commercial for Asience, it is in flash format and will take a few seconds to load:
| Asience commercial - 2 MB swf |
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And also a beautiful picture with the yellow dress from the commercial.
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04/09/06
12/26/05 - Zhang Ziyi was in Rome recently to film a new commercial for Asience.
Gallery: Ziyi filming in Rome - 20 pics
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Thanks to Shadow for the pics.
12/26/05
12/03/05 - Ziyi's latest commercial for Asience, the Japanese shampoo company. It continues the new theme titled "Modern Spaces", which dropped the famous red dress in favor of sleeker, more modern outfits - 3 MB swf
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In case you missed the commercial where Ziyi literally drops the red dress, watch it here.
12/03/05
10/07/05 - Asience has released a new commercial today, following the hype created by the teaser ad from last month. It is a bit of letdown, as the ad is more about the now-famous red dress, while Ziyi only appears for a few seconds. Also of interest is this video (4 MB) of last year's "Max Illusion Night", when Asience projected giant images of Ziyi onto the Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel. If you get a black screen while trying to play it, just right-click and choose "Play". Next to the videos below is a new picture.
| Commercial - 3 MB swf | Max Illusion Night - 4 MB swf |  |
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10/07/05
09/26/05 - Asience has put Ziyi on a large billboard in the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo. The red dress that she's not wearing in the picture is hanging beneath the ad. A similiar display went up in the Harajuku district yesterday.
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A new commercial accompanies the ad campaign. I believe this is actually just a preview of a longer commercial coming next month. Short and sweet, just Ziyi tossing away her dress - 1 MB swf.
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Also a couple of small new pictures
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Finally, an article from the Los Angeles Times that talks about advertising trends in Japan mentions the Asience ad campaign.
And Asiance, a shampoo brand built on defining beauty with a pan-Asian look, has seen its market share grow after an ad campaign featuring China's Zhang Ziyi, who starred in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Asiance's rival Lux is known in Japan for using a string of Western actresses, including Jennifer Connolly and Charlize Theron.
"In the 1990s, it was still impossible to use Chinese or Korean stars," said Tatsuo Sekine, chairman of CM Data Bank/CM Research Center, which measures the impact of ads in the greater Tokyo region (a market the size of California). "Now we are in the beginning of an Oriental boom."
06/28/05 - Zhang Ziyi stars in her seventh "Asian Beauty" commercial for Asience, the Japanese beauty products company. A man asks what is her secret, and she replies "Inner beauty." You can watch the commercial here
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06/28/05
04/02/05 - Ziyi is in a new commercial. Asience, the Japanese maker of beauty products, has released their sixth "Asian Beauty" commercial starring Zhang Ziyi. This spot is set in a musuem decorated with large pictures of Z, other musuems should take note. You can watch it here.
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I think she made this during early February, right after filming ended for Memoirs of a Geisha. The release of this spot was likely timed to coincide with Ziyi's visit to Japan. The other five "Asian Beauty" commercials, all featuring Ziyi, are on the videos page.
04/02/05
03/11/05- Asience, the Japanese maker of beauty products, has started an online promotion campaign and they have some new pictures of Ziyi. I also recently added all the Asience commercials to the videos page.
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Thanks to Hiro at Ziyifan.com (Japanese.)
03/11/05
12/22/04 - Asience has released their fifth "Asian Beauty" commercial starring Ziyi Zhang. As always, it's theme is promoting strength and confidence among Asian women of all nationalities. You can download it below.
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Here are the previous four, if you haven't seen them. Each is a 1.5 MB swf flash file, they take a few seconds to load.
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