Chinatown Point's faceless rabbit marketing gimmick creeps consumers out

Chinatown Point’s Celestial Rabbit positioned right outside the mall has garnered a lot of attention online. The marketing gimmick by the mall unfortunately garnered attention for not necessarily the right reasons as consumers and mall go-ers were seemingly creeped out by the execution. 

Facebook users were split on the matter with some saying the faceless rabbit looked more appropriate for the seventh month. Others said it looked like a pau and commented the brand for its out of the box thinking. One user said: “Chinatown Point is a master of publicity. I like.”

According to Chinatown Point’s Facebook page, the faceless rabbit was put out as part of its “Design the Rabbit” competition during the mooncake festival. It was part of a promotion to celebrate a “Mid-Autumn Night’s Dream.” The face was intentionally left empty for audience engagement, so the best design can be drawn on to bring the Celestial Rabbit to life. The best design would also stand a chance to win SG$100 worth of NTUC FairPrice vouchers. In addition, the Celestial Rabbit’s face was left empty as part of its social strategy so that the public would take photos and post it on their social media accounts.

A spokesperson of Perennial (Singapore) Retail Management shared that the activities were planed to centre around promoting the arts. The Celestial Rabbit, specially designed without facial features, was part of Chinatown Point’s strategy to enhance customer engagement via its Facebook contest which allowed shoppers to ‘fill in the blanks” and project their feelings onto the sculpture. This was held in conjunction with the mall’s lantern painting competition. She shared that following the heightened interest, an official statement was issued on 27 August 2022 to amplify the planned activity.

“Many were happy to join in the fun and this was evident in the number of entries received. In just three days, we received over 100 entries. The winning rabbit’s facial features were added to the Celestial Rabbit, which is now on display till 30 September 2022,” she said.

According to Chinatown Point’s Facebook page, the Celestial Rabbit has been brought to life by Rui Ting Huang’s design which was a fan favourite. 

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