Strategic Communication Frameworks for Brands in Navigating Sensitive Social Discourse: A Case Study of SK-II’s “Marriage Pressure” Campaign

Focusing on SK-II’s advertising campaign addressing marital pressure, this study examines how multinational brands engage with locally sensitive issues in the Chinese context. Drawing on emotional branding, post-feminist discourse, and affective publics, the study analyzes how documentary-style visuals and moderated narration transform women’s everyday experiences into shareable emotional structures while managing cultural risk. Through open-ended storytelling, the campaign enables audience reinterpretation and circulation across social media, extending beyond a commercial text into a relational medium. The findings suggest that communicative effectiveness depends on nuanced representations of lived experience and the accommodation of diverse audience interpretations.