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A screen grab of a 2016 advertisement on YouTube, showing the actress Scarlett Johansson in an advertisement for Huawei’s P9 smartphone. Photo : SCMP/Handout
AbacusTech

Can Wonder Woman help this Chinese smartphone giant win over the US?

Gal Gadot is the latest in a long line of celebrity ambassadors for Huawei

Smartphones
Andrew Barclay
Andrew Barclay
Why you can trust SCMP
This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Huawei has had a tough start to the year.

After not-so-subtly announcing it was close to signing a deal with carrier AT&T, Huawei’s hopes were unceremoniously dashed at CES. Now the firm’s hopes rest on the shoulders of its latest celebrity spokesperson: Wonder Woman.

Gal Gadot, 2017’s highest grossing actress, will hold the title of Chief Experience Officer at the world’s third-largest smartphone maker. And judging from the video at the launch event, it seems she’ll also play the role of Mandarin teacher. “Remember, it’s pronounced wow-way,” explains Gadot in the clip.

Gadot is only the latest in a long line of celebrity endorsements for Huawei, as it tries to get Americans to buy its phones.

Scarlett Johansson and Henry Cavill were enlisted in 2016 to help promote the P9 smartphone -- but given that the firm only has 0.5% market share in the US, it’s safe to say Huawei needs more than Black Widow and Superman to help it grow.
A screen grab of a 2016 advertisement on YouTube, showing the actress Scarlett Johansson in an advertisement for Huawei’s P9 smartphone. Photo : SCMP/Handout
 

Of course, Huawei isn’t the first tech company to enlist celebrity help in selling products. But getting celebrities to endorse a product and getting them to actually use a product are two different things.

In 2012, Oprah Winfrey was caught tweeting how much she loved her Microsoft Surface tablet using her iPad.

Twitter screen-grab of Oprah's Twitter account. Photo: CNN via Twitter
 

Singer Alicia Keys also famously tweeted -- using the Twitter app for iPhone -- shortly after being named BlackBerry's global creative director back in 2013. She later claimed she had been hacked.

Twitter screen-grab of Alicia Key's Twitter account, which she later claimed had been hacked. Photo: Gizmodo via Twitter
 

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