Chairman Mao’s Debut on Red Envelopes

In Chinese traditions, a red envelope (hong bao in Mandarin, lai see in Cantonese) is simply a long, narrow, red envelope in which Chinese people wrap not only “lucky money”, but also blessings for the ones they love during holidays and special occasions such as Chinese New Year. Since the red envelope was first invented, its design has remained largely the same. Jody Xiong, founder of “The Nine” tried to think out of the box and design a fun red envelope that speaks innovation and creativity during this Chinese New Year.

Inspired by the portrait of Mao Zedong (the founding father of PRC, known as Chairman Mao) on every Chinese banknote, the Nine decided to base their design on this element that is dear and near to everyone. However, in China, images of national leaders are not allowed to be used in commercial designs. As a bold move, we adopted a cut-off design on the red envelope, which reveals just exactly Mao’s portrait when banknotes are inserted. There, Chairman Mao has made his appearance on the red envelope for the first time. On the back of the envelope, it says “We Chinese people are getting rich!” in a tone imitating Chairman Mao.

With millions of hits and shares, this fun yet minimalist design went viral on Chinese social media. So popular that, Jody was invited by Hunan TV to feature in "Happy Camp" - one of the most popular entertainment TV shows in China. He shared this red envelope with several national famous stars, such as Deng Chao (邓超), Eddie Peng(彭于晏),He Jiong(何炅) and Han Han(韩寒). The show was watched by more than 200 million viewers.

Happy Camp： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1uEARjY_gM

This red envelope has become a phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of envelopes have been sold on-line and off-line since its debut. People are proud to share the picture of red envelopes after purchasing and regard this as a trend during this CNY.

毛主席红包

在中国传统习俗里，红包泛指包着钱的红纸包，不仅是喜庆时馈赠礼金的载体，更承载着祝福与心意。但自红包诞生以来，外观并没有发生根本性的变化。基于此，九曜作为一家致力于开发文化创意产品的厂商，我们希望用与众不同的方式颠覆传统红包。

考虑到人民币的正面有毛泽东的头像，我们认为这是红包设计的重要元素，可以让红包的意义更纯粹。但中国广告法禁止在商业上使用国家领导人的形象。于是我们创造性地对红包采取了镂空设计，当人民币装入红包时，正好露出毛主席的头像，首创“镂空+毛主席”的产品设计。红包背面附上文案——“中国人民新年快乐”，以毛主席的口吻送出新年祝福，寓意毛主席向全国人民拜年的美好祝愿。创意简单有效，颠覆了以往千篇一律的红包形式。

自红包上线以来，在社交媒体上引起数百万人的主动转发与关注，90%的人表达出强烈的购买意向，数万红包一夜售罄。引起多家国内外自媒体以及权威网站的主动报道，红包的设计者熊超先生还受到中国收视率最高的湖南卫视的邀请，带着红包登上其综艺节目——2017年的《快乐大本营》，与亿万观众见面。