Things We Saw Today: Fandom Is Obsessed With This Queer Ad for a Chinese Lipstick

Amid popular tropes like “there was only one bed” and “fake dating,” many fandoms have made liberal use of the “reincarnation AU.” In this kind of alternate universe, the idea is that characters from another time (or galaxy, or what have you) find themselves reincarnated (often in the modern day) and are usually on a path back to discovering their lost love.

Fandom’s affinity for this romantic scenario that transcends life and death is one of many reasons why an advertisement for a Chinese beauty brand’s lipstick recently blew up in fan circles on Twitter. Most pressingly, it has a wonderfully queer sensibility and features two lovely women.

In the ad for Florasis makeup, which plays more like a trailer or a promo for a lavish Chinese drama (where reincarnation is a not infrequent theme), the women meet in passing. One drops something that the other retrieves (spoiler alert: it’s lipstick), and then an intercut flashback shows the two frolicking and making beautiful music together in the past. There’s makeup involved, I guess, but you’d be forgiven if you were so distracted you didn’t realize there was a product being promoted.

The reactions online as the ad made the rounds were enthusiastic, to say the least.

It even has its own fan art.

Marketing execs should take note: this ad’s popularity on Twitter has provided more organic exposure, excitement, and brand awareness than can be bought by a targeted campaign. The clip has been watched more than 2 million times, and “sapphic lipstick ad” is all one need mention for a certain portion of the Internet to know exactly what you’re talking about. There’s a “full version” of this ad that’s even more explicitly queer, but alas it has vanished from Twitter at current.

Chinese brand Florasis’s lipstick is what’s ostensibly being sold here. Florasis produces makeup that comes in elaborate cases and is carved with gorgeous details. The company has its aesthetics down pat, and this was brilliantly realized in the brief narrative that captured much of fandom Twitter’s imagination. And because of the ad, the makeup’s getting a lot more traction.

Media execs should also take note. More of this.

(image: screengrab)

What else did we see today? We thought you’d never ask.

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine will now end after its eighth and abbreviated season on NBC, which is still delayed. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
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  GORILLA GLUE GIRL GOT HER HAIR BACK YASSSSS pic.twitter.com/FvS6zOmzx1

  — T (@richonnesokoye) February 11, 2021

• Hey, screw this guy in particular:
• See more

  Fox News guest: “If $600 or $1400 changes your life, you were pretty much screwed already” https://t.co/PYqAgO9vmT pic.twitter.com/3CsOc4Yvej

  — Media Matters (@mmfa) February 11, 2021

• Brandy answers burning questions about her iconic Cinderella. (via Vulture)
• Prosecutors warn that Donald Trump would continue to stoke violence if he is not convicted. (via NYTimes)
• “This Is What It’s Like For Men With Eating Disorders” (via Buzzfeed)
• Jack Black will join Cate Blanchett in the Borderlands movie. (via IGN)

What did you see out there today?

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Kaila Hale-Stern

Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.

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