Set in Shanghai and extended through Xiaohongshu, the campaign brings the classic tale of reunion into the modern cityscape
For this year’s Qixi Festival—China’s traditional Valentine’s Day—Prada has created a campaign that blends romance, city life, and storytelling. The brand’s Chinese ambassadors, Li Xian and Chen Haoyu, star in a short film where they cross seven of Shanghai’s iconic bridges before finally coming together.
The campaign draws on the classic Qixi legend, where two lovers, a celestial fairy and a mortal man, are only allowed to meet once a year on a bridge made of magpies. Prada brings this story into a modern Shanghai setting, using real bridges along Suzhou Creek like Waibaidu and Yangpu to represent this journey toward connection.
Alongside the film, Prada has launched a Qixi collection featuring pieces like the soft-structured Dada bag and a sleek sneaker with a vintage touch. The collection reflects the fast pace of city life and is available both online and in stores.
To extend the campaign beyond the screen, Prada is launching an interactive project on Xiaohongshu, a popular social commerce platform in China. Called “Encountering Bridges on Qixi,” it invites customers to pick up special postcards at Prada boutiques and visit city bridges to share their experiences online.
The postcards will be available at over ten boutiques across China until August 29—the date of this year’s Qixi. On that evening, the ten posts with the most likes and comments will win a 3D paper photo album and a set of postcards signed by Li Xian and Chen Haoyu.
This isn’t Prada’s first creative take on Qixi. Last year, the brand launched an AI chatbot modeled after Li Xian to celebrate the festival. This year’s campaign takes a different approach, and focuses on real places and real connections by bringing the ancient story into today’s urban world. The result is a Qixi campaign that feels rooted in place, focused less on grand gestures and more on the paths we trace to meet one another.
