The Internet Is Baffled By Tom Hiddleston's Women's Vitamin Ad — But the Chinese Market Loves It

Isabel Jones
Updated
The Internet Is Baffled By Tom Hiddleston's Women's Vitamin Ad — But the Chinese Market Loves It

[LAUGH] Yeah. But the friends I made there are some of my closest friends. Are they? Yeah. Still to this day? Because you're all lumped together and away from home. And you try and think of crazy things to do. [MUSIC] Boarding school's kind of like a mixture of Harry Potter and The Great Escape. Okay. [LAUGH] Without the magic or the- But with the broomsticks. [LAUGH] Right. [MUSIC] Right, in dormitories of ten boys. Wow. All kids and so it's like what are we gonna do tonight. Okay, we're gonna dorm raid, which means you're gonna. Get your pillows after lights out. Get the end of the pillow at the end of the pillow case, make it a kind of club. Right. [LAUGH] And go, and start a huge pillow fight with the next door dormitory. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]

A Chinese ad for Centrum women’s vitamins featuring Golden Globe-winning actor and British heartthrob Tom Hiddleston recently went viral, and the Western world is fully stumped by just about every part of it.

<p>Mike Marsland/Getty Images</p>

Mike Marsland/Getty Images

The video opens from the perspective of an unknown woman (presumably “you”), as she runs downstairs to find Hiddleston preparing a Pinterest-worthy plate of multicolored vegetables with a heart-shaped egg in the center. “I finished early so I thought I’d pop back and make you breakfast,” he tells her — er, you. What did he finish early? Where is he “popping back” from? We may never know. He then reminds her (sorry, you!) in Chinese, to take your vitamins. “You look great,” he says as he makes aggressive eye contact with you. Once he has you where he wants you (nutrient-filled and flattered) he leaves (!!!). “I’ll probably be a bit busy for the next few weeks,” he tells you, in true f—boi fashion, before swapping his apron for a sleek blazer and hitting the road.

We have a lot of questions.

Evidently, so did the rest of the internet:

But the actual target audience, the Chinese market, is apparently obsessed with the actor’s vitamin-hawking side hustle.

Professor Zhang Kuangjie of the Nanyang Technological University told the BBC that the ad appeals to Chinese women for a number of reasons, including the fantasy-fulfillment aspect of waking up to a movie star. "Many female fans often consider their idol their imaginary boyfriend or husband," he explained, “This ad appeals exactly to those fans' fantasies. The fact that he speaks very good Chinese [in the ad] further adds to [his] likeability."

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The mobile-friendly format of the ad, too, contributes to the experience, making ”the fans feel like they are having a virtual chat with the celebrity.”

"In a mobile-savvy country like China where there are close to 900 million mobile internet subscribers, having the ad executed in a mobile-first channel makes perfect sense," Rezwana Manjur, Editor of Marketing Magazine, confirmed to the outlet.

But perhaps the most appealing factor is the ad’s concept. “For a Chinese woman to be served by a man is not common in Asia, let alone a Caucasian man, so that's something that adds to that [fantasy] element," TGH Collective founder Tay Guan Hin told the BBC.

I suppose I wouldn’t object to having Hiddleston surprise me with breakfast either — but if you don’t come bearing bacon, Tom, honestly don’t bother.