Hermès faced a rare misstep in August when its attempt to woo China’s Gen Z with whimsical animated shorts sparked confusion and mockery on social media platform Xiaohongshu (RedNote). As a background, the French luxury house collaborated with American artist Annie Choi on three films showcasing the Bolide Messenger bag, Kos wooden sandals, and Kaorumi tableware in dreamy, Ghibli-inspired sequences. Campaign Asia-Pacific's editorial team also had a bit of fun when OpenAI first rolled out the Ghibli-inspired features in March.
But instead of applause, the shorts drew scepticism over style and substance. Users questioned whether the animations were AI-generated and mocked the “childlike” aesthetic as “utterly misaligned with Hermès’ high-end positioning,” with some likening them to “pop-up mobile games.” The placement on Xiaohongshu didn’t help either: some questioned if the platform even reaches Hermès’ typical audience. One user asked bluntly, “Is this really an Hermès ad for me?”
Luxury brands are increasingly embracing animation to engage the Gen Z cohort, especially in China, where the younger audiences value emotional resonance such as nostalgia, warmth, and personal connection over traditional metrics. Successful examples include Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bear Chronicles: Operation Black Tie, Balenciaga’s Simpsons crossover, and Loewe’s multiple collaborations. These campaigns married playful creativity with clear brand storytelling, sparking buzz while remaining on-brand.
But Hermès’s foray missed the mark. Experts point to several missteps.
Q: What went wrong with the creative execution?
Gordan Domlija
Founder & managing partner, ElucidateX
The first thing to say is that the success or failure of any Gen Z-targeted animation campaign rarely comes down to executional quality alone. Instead, it depends on how well the work taps into the cultural codes, digital behaviours, and emotional expectations of the intended target audience.
Animation can be beautifully crafted and yet still be misplaced or irrelevant to a given context.
On this level, campaigns succeed when art elevates brand identity, not when brand identity is forced into art.
When we speak about Gen Z in China, we often describe characteristics such as their high fluency in visual culture, or their particular adeptness at decoding signals of authenticity and relevance. So, it should come as no surprise that even when every individual component of a campaign can seem perfect, a heritage brand, a celebrated artist, a universally loved animation style, it doesn’t automatically create a well-received or successful campaign when you put them all together.
This is a trap that many international brands fall into when creating work for the Chinese market. Even with the best intentions and significant investment, the results can miss the mark because the cultural or generational nuance is missed. What looks like a natural synergy to a global brand HQ can land as a brand-devaluing misalignment to the intended audience in China.
One possible read on this particular reaction could be that animation rooted in nostalgia, poetic storytelling, and themes of melancholy and spirituality resonates more deeply with older audiences. At the same time, Gen Z tends to gravitate toward faster-paced, optimistic, and aspirational narratives, as expressed through local animation styles and gaming aesthetics.
From a cultural perspective, even for an international brand, aligning to an imported cultural animation style that is tied to someone else’s nostalgia rather than their own experience, can hinder marketing resonance with younger Chinese audiences who have a different sense of emotional relevance, pacing and heritage.
On that point, it is worth noting that China has a thriving and distinct animation industry of its own. While not a specific animation style, Guoman [or Chinese animation] certainly emphasises a Chinese spirit which resonates culturally and generationally. Just take a look at domestic and international box office numbers this year.
Founder, Innerchapter.co
Hermès’ recent animation campaign opens an interesting debate: does animation align (or misalign) with the codes of luxury product marketing?
As context, let's remember Hermès has launched multiple Chinese New Year animations in recent years, which have resonated.
In our opinion, the delta in sentiment between Hermès’ CNY animations and this recent campaign is clear. The CNY work successfully embodies the spirit of the Zodiac and feelings of family, renewal, joy. In contrast, the current campaign fails to reproduce any tactile value—both emotional and financial—of luxury leather goods.
In our Luxury Youth tracker (1,000 consumers aged 15-29 in China), Hermès has remained as the second most aspirational luxury brand for the previous 18 months—a position we see reflected in its positive financial results, which are in part attributed to growth in leatherwear.
The challenge lies in the product category itself. Hermès is defined by craft, detail, and the textural richness of leatherwork. These qualities are rooted in the tactile: the grain of the hide, the stitch of the seam, the patina that develops over time. Animation, by its very nature, smoothens and flattens these textures into a surface. This is why the campaign’s fit feels uneasy; the medium undermines the category’s essence.
Managing director, VO2 Asia Pacific
Some animation campaigns succeed with Gen Z because they feel culturally authentic and create emotional continuity with the brand.
In Hermès’ case, the animations were visually beautiful, but three things undermined them: the Ghibli-style nostalgia works when tied to familiar, accessible IP, but it's disconnected from ultra-luxury objects; Xiaohongshu’s broad distribution pushed the content to audiences outside the brand’s target, sparking sarcasm; and even among true customers, the “childlike” tone created a sense of prestige erosion.
Without recognisable context or meaningful storytelling, the animations came across as emotionally weak — more like a dream sequence than a narrative Gen Z could connect to.
Founder and CCO, Tinker Tailor Agency
Hermès’ whimsical animation for the ‘Kos’ sandal illustrates a familiar pitfall: adopting youthful formats without tuning into the emotional and cultural frequencies of today’s Asian young luxury consumers. These consumers expect elevated storytelling, animation isn’t the problem; I think the tone is. They want sophistication with soul, not retrofitted simplicity dressed as whimsy.
I see two critical angles that are emerging here:
Firstly, Regional storytelling over global templates: Having worked in both cultures I do believe that what works Paris or New York won’t automatically connect in Shanghai or Bangkok. Gen Z in Asia wants narratives that reflect their culture, not just a global idea or trend repackaged and beautifully delivered. It’s simply not enough as it just becomes beautiful wallpaper.
Secondly, Luxury as an experience, not a gimmick: I do believe that gaming and AI can be powerful, but only when used to elevate the brand’s DNA and cultural heritage. Luxury consumers nowadays want immersive and aspirational experiences, not just surface-level playfulness.
Closing Soundbite: “Luxury without cultural nuance risks becoming just expensive marketing.”
Q: How can luxury brands balance playfulness, emotionally engaging content, with the prestige and exclusivity that defines their identity, especially in markets like China?
Julien Lapka
Founder, innerchapter.co
Interestingly, in our Youth research, while we see that while emotional indicators like ‘positive experiences’ and ‘nostalgia’ are on the rise - the consistent drivers for ‘what makes a product or experience luxurious’ is “unparalleled craftsmanship: high-quality materials, craftmanship, and attention to detail”.
With that said, animation can work for luxury when it doesn’t try to mimic product but instead captures sentiment, cultural resonance, and emotional values. The current Hermès campaign feels decontextualized and without a strong artistic anchor rendering it ‘childish’ and running counter to what luxury represents not because animation was used, rather because without a cultural grounding, animation risks reducing rather than elevating luxury’s message.
Here, if we were to reference “Chuang Tapestry”, a 1959 movie produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, this film’s narrative centres around a mother’s painstaking years-long weaving of a tapestry and a child’s brave quest to retrieve it, it’s a meditation on the labour of craft, legacy, and familial devotion.
Another context where animation has a role in luxury communications is in conveying values aspirational to a wealthy class. As an example, 'Big Fish & Begonia' (大鱼海棠) is a myth-inspired film that combines hand-painted artistry with modern animation.
For China’s upper-middle class, who often seek to balance respect for tradition with aspirations of cultural refinement, the heavy use of classical philosophy, ritual imagery, and literati aesthetics syncs with the elite taste-code of connoisseurship: knowing your Zhuangzi and Shan Hai Jing is a form of cultural capital.
The narrative also matters as the movie delves into an ethic of guardianship over the world that resonates with the wealthy class’s narrative of responsibility and legacy amid economic uncertainty, referencing such classics becomes relevant.
Sophie Coulon
Managing director, VO2 Asia Pacific
Create playful content that strengthens rather than weakens a luxury brand's codes. That is easier said than done and requires deep audience knowledge — in particular through CRM and data-driven insights — to ensure the tone and context feel relevant. When done well, playfulness doesn’t dilute exclusivity; it creates intimacy and emotional engagement that feel aspirational.
Gordan Domlija
Founder & managing partner, ElucidateX
This is one of the central challenges for luxury brands, particularly in China, where luxury functions as a personal choice and as a tool of social signalling.
Again, generalising broadly about the 250 million Gen Z in China, they are digitally native, culturally confident, and highly responsive to playful, emotionally engaging content. However, they do also expect that luxury brands deliver on their promise of aspiration, scarcity, and craftsmanship.
The key is to engage without cheapening or trivialising. This is not always an easy balance. Brands should begin with a deep understanding of their own identity, products and value before they can successfully engage any audience, especially Gen Z. Just because a campaign collaboration or captured trend worked for another brand in the same category, with this particular audience, it does not necessarily follow that you will deliver the same result.
The right collaboration can still be a powerful way to strike this balance. A brand needs to choose partners who amplify its own identity while acting as a credible cultural translator for Chinese Gen Z. By partnering with artists, designers, or cultural figures who already embody youth relevance, luxury brands can stay fresh while retaining control over tone and access.
For luxury brands, playfulness through the right collaboration can attract attention, but exclusivity will maintain prestige. The right partner should also enable limited editions, closed community experiences, and unique creative expressions that can’t be mass-produced.
This ensures the partner is reflecting or extending what the brand already is.
Founder and CCO, Tinker Tailor Agency
Playful content doesn’t need to dilute prestige, the problem comes when ‘playful’ tips into gimmicky. The balance lies in using formats like animation to deepen the brand’s emotional world, not to chase trends. When storytelling is rooted in craftsmanship, heritage, or cultural connection, it elevates the brand while still feeling engaging. In markets like China, where younger audiences have a sophisticated lens on luxury, the expectation is not for brands to be quirky, but for them to create experiences that are immersive, aspirational, and culturally relevant.
Q: Share your key takeaways here for luxury brands connecting with the Gen Z audience.
Founder, innerchapter.co
To cite Studio Ghibli as a critique is unfortunate and misrepresentative. Hayao Miyazaki was known for his dedication to the craft of animation. A popular clip circulating online notes his team spending over one year on a 4-second crowd scene for 2013's ‘The Wind Rises.’
However, it appears the recent viral ‘Ghibli portrait prompt’ linked to the launch of ChatGPT-4o has potentially diminished the value of this animation style and undermined its craft for the next generation of ‘AI + luxury’ consumers.
For Hermès, the lesson is clear: animation can be a powerful tool, but only if it conveys cultural narrative and emotional depth. When it tries to represent craftsmanship itself, it undermines the very essence of what Hermès stands for, especially so in a new world of AI-automated animation.
Sophie Coulon
Managing director, VO2 Asia Pacific
Creativity alone isn’t enough. Campaigns that combine cultural fluency, consistent brand codes, data-driven understanding, and emotionally meaningful storytelling are the ones that resonate as both aspirational and authentic.
Gordan Domlija
Founder & managing partner, ElucidateX
Exclusivity needs to be non-negotiable for luxury brands. Anything that cheapens or trivialises a luxury brand can have consequences far beyond a poorly received campaign. In today’s consumer environment, where value perception is at the forefront of customer relationships with brands, even the most exclusive and downturn-resistant luxury brands need to be wary of diluting value.
To genuinely connect, playfulness is a great entry point. Gen Z expects brands to meet them in their cultural spaces with creativity, wit, and platform-native content that understands digital trends. However, this playfulness should always be purposeful, never undermining the sense of refinement that luxury must maintain.
Collaboration and cultural translation also matter. Working with local creators, artists, and designers allows luxury brands to be both globally iconic and locally relevant, particularly in China, where cultural ownership and identity are highly valued.
Finally, and this should be obvious, luxury storytelling must still be aspirational at its core. Gen Z wants to be entertained, but they also want to dream, to express individuality, and to align themselves with brands that embody those values. Playfulness can capture attention, but aspiration secures long-term loyalty.
Founder and CCO, Tinker Tailor Agency
First, there is no one-size-fits-all youth strategy—brands need regional storytelling, not global templates. What works in Europe won’t automatically work in Asia. Second, authenticity is everything. Formats like animation are tools, not shortcuts — they should be used to heighten a brand’s narrative, not flatten it into a gimmick. Ultimately, Gen Z luxury buyers are seeking brands that create moments worth remembering, not just campaigns to scroll past. Luxury is about experience and resonance, not just reach.
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