To snake or not to snake? Luxury brands face conundrum

Most brands have already launched their Chinese New Year (CNY) campaigns as per norm. This is especially true with luxury brands, who have budgets allocated for cultural localisation during CNY.

However, the Year of the Snake brings a challenge since in China, as elsewhere in the world, the snake holds a negative connotation due to its slithering and sometimes venomous nature. As a result, brands are digging deeper into traditional symbolism or instead diverting focus to the Spring Festival celebrations to push the Snake aspect to the background. Interestingly this is the opposite of last year, when the dragon provided almost too many angles for marketers to choose from due to its cultural importance in Chinese communities.

Loewe leans into the Year of the Snake

Spanish luxury brand Loewe has continued to release collections that are inspired by traditional Chinese craft, working with local artisans on collaborations. From its monochrome ceramic-themed handbags in 2023 to the jade collection last year, the brand collaborates with local specialists and master craftspeople to discuss the cultural heritage of each year’s chosen form of craft. This partnership fits Loewe like a glove because of the brand’s emphasis on its own craft and artisanal tradition.

Image: Loewe/Weibo

This year, Loewe tackled the Snake element head-on with a two-pronged campaign. On the one hand, it continues to team up with craftspeople to pay homage to traditional Chinese art and craft, this time with Chinese Cloisonné ceramic and metalwork wares, known in China as “Jingtai Blue” (景泰蓝), due to its vivid colour and the “Jingtai” mark. Loewe partnered with a third-generation master enameller Xiong Songtao for a limited-edition jewellery collection with Jingtai Blue pendants that with artworks that includes snake, monkey or auspicious cloud imagery. The same motifs recur on other items in its CNY capsule collection.

A promotional video from the brand predominantly features the snake, and combines the art of shadow puppets, kite-making and contemporary dance. With props from artist Shen Xintong and Weifang kite intangible cultural heritage inheritor Zhang Xiaodong in the shape of snakes, dancer Xie Xin and her company perform snake-inspired moves.

Other brands that have dug into the snake symbolism in China include Versace and Bulgari. Versace released an animated short video to show the folktale of how the snake was included in the Chinese Zodiac. The animation style resembles traditional Chinese ink wash painting. Meanwhile, Bulgari, launched an exhibition in Shanghai’s Zhang Garden between January 9 and January 16 January to pay tribute to not only its iconic Serpenti collection but also the Year of the Snake.

Stepping past the Chinese zodiac

Other brands have shifted the emphasis away from snakes and focused instead on the lore and customs of the New Year in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar.

Some passed over the festival, using the occasion to pay tribute to Chinese culture. For example, Kering, the group that owns brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga teamed up with Chinese contemporary artist Jiang Miao for a special installation project that incorporates Taoist philosophy and auspicious signs.

Miu Miu, the sister brand of Prada, released its 2025 CNY campaign video on January 7, featuring actresses Liu Haocun and Zhao Jinmai, both Miu Miu’s brand ambassadors, as well as music from singer-songwriter Lexie Liu, who is also a brand ambassador. The video is set in a nostalgic Cantonese/Hong Kong-style club called Chinatown, where the two actresses nurse drinks as the band plays soft R&B. The band disappear with other customers, leaving Liu Haocun and Zhao to explore the possibilities of the venue. Beyond the film, the ‘Encounter’ campaign includes events in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, as well as a listening party and signing event with Lexie Liu. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the Chinese version of the topic “Miu Miu Encounters” (#MiuMiu如期而遇#) garnered an impressive 25.99 million views.

German luxury brand Montblanc, released a Meisterstück fountain pen for the Chinese New Year, honouring the materials of bamboo, gold and jade to pay tribute to traditional Chinese culture. However, it was not very well received by Chinese netizens on Weibo, as many found the product to be thematically vague mash-up of oriental motifs.

Image: Montblanc/Weibo

Brands such as Ami and Tiffany, on the other hand, simply used snake motifs in their design for the CNY exclusive collection as a minimalist, special edition. These lower-effort attempts to relate the snake to some well-wishing symbolism can be a safe way to avoid unexpected backlash. 

Prada’s CNY campaign video, for example, is considered a flop by some with its unclear messaging of celebrity ambassadors queuing in a serpentine line with silhouettes.

With tricky zodiac years such as the Mouse and the Snake, digging deeper into traditional Chinese culture and symbolism like Loewe and Versace are of course, the best way to show respect to the local consumers for luxury brands during CNY. But sometimes, simpler ways of shifting attention away from the animal might be the safest approach, as Miu Miu has demonstrated with its celebratory campaign.