Unmarried and proud

Beijing – A bold campaign from skincare brand SK-II sides with Chinese women who refuse to bow to societal pressure to marry.

• A moving four-minute film shows Chinese women proving there is more to life than marriage
• The spot is part of P&G skincare brand SK-II’s #changedestiny campaign to empower women who are facing adversity 

The film, Marriage Market Takeover, undermines the stinging social term Sheng Nu, or leftover women, used to refer to unmarried women aged over 25. The mini-documentary depicts women in this demographic who don’t conform to the Sheng Nu character type, but instead appear independent, self-content and proudly single. 

The film hijacked a marriage market, a traditional Chinese matchmaking forum in which parents exchange details of their unmarried offspring. SK-II created an installation that gave voice to the campaign’s featured women, with posters of them confidently flying solo and personal messages saying: ‘I don’t want to get married just for the sake of marrying. I won’t be happy that way.’

‘[Chinese women] are dreaming of so many things. They are independent and strong, but they are also very careful about how they speak to their parents because they respect them and love them so much,’ Susanna Fagring, client director for Forsman & Bodenfors, the Swedish creative agency behind the film, told Creativity Online. ‘We believe we created a platform for them to talk about the subject, to open up the discussion.’