Pepsi: Bring Happiness Home

Welcome to my latest directorial effort for PepsiCo’s 2016 Chinese New Year campaign, “Bring Happiness Home: The Monkey King Family”. It is an honour to helm this film that is planted at the confluence of three cultural icons: the protagonist of “Journey to the West”, the family who has portrayed him for four generations, and a global brand like Pepsi Cola. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Danielle Jin, CMO of PepsiCo beverages, and her brand team, my business partner Alex Xie and our intrepid Team PepsiCo at CIVILIZATION Shanghai, scriptwriter Miya Wang, and producer extraordinaire Didi Xu.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey. So there will no doubt be a bevy of marketing campaigns showcasing the Monkey King or “Journey to the West”. How can PepsiCo’s “Bring Happiness Home” celebrate the Monkey King, this mythological simian symbol of irreverence and fun (personality traits rarely found in the heroes of traditional Chinese literature), in a very PepsiCo manner? Believe it or not, it was easy. Because the core values of Pepsi Cola, youth and irreverence, are the very qualities the Monkey King naturally embodies. I hope you enjoy the film.

Advertising Agency: Civilization, Shanghai, China
Creative Directors: Alex Xie, Stephen Zou, Miya Wang
Copywriter: Miya Wang
Art Directors: Stephen Zou, Andrew Lok
Agency Producer: Guo-Jun Yu
Client Management: Grace Dong, Abby Yu
Production Company: NUTS Film
Film Director: Andrew Lok
Assistant Film Director: Ling-Song Yu
Cinematographer: Ke-Nan Qi
Producer: Did Xu
Post Production: NUTS Film
Editors: Didi Xu, Yin-Jian Lu, Shao-Hua Huang
Colorist: Ying-Jie Zhang
Music & Sound Design: Allen Zhang