Taobao Ugly Things Awards Ceremony: Aesthetic Lowland or Commercial Highland?

The third Taobao Ugly Things Awards Ceremony announced the top five ugliest things of the year. Young people's preference for ugly things is also advocating a kind of aesthetic freedom. Outside of the traditional aesthetic paradigm, ugly things represent a "spirit of being authentic, daring to offend, and not following the crowd." Let's take a look at what kind of aesthetic and curiosity preferences are contained in this year's "ugly things" and what kind of commercial value they have.

This may be the most evenly matched contestants in history, and the most head-to-head competition in history, which has created an award ceremony that is a feast for the eyes of the audience. On the evening of February 22, the third Taobao Ugly Things Award Ceremony came to an end, with millions of netizens watching the live broadcast online to witness the gorgeous announcement of the "Five Ugliest Things of the Year".

Since the Ugly Things Contest was launched on February 14, netizens across the Internet have enthusiastically nominated "ugly things", and creative design Taobao merchants, Gansu Museum and other museum cultural and creative companies have also actively signed up to "show their ugliness". After layers of selection, a total of 40 ugly things have been shortlisted.

Top 40 "ugly things" on Taobao

In the end, the brain flower hat, princess down jacket, human face clay phone case, Gansu Provincial Museum's green horse headgear and little frog puppet costume stood out from the "battle of gods" shortlist and became the well-deserved ugliest things of the year.

The top five ugliest things on Taobao

1. There is no end to ugliness, just like there is no end to creativity

Since the first Taobao Ugly Things Awards Ceremony was held in 2020, the evaluation principle has always been: we don't want ugliness that is sensational, nor vulgar and eye-catching. Ugliness has its own personality, although it may be too avant-garde and appear special; ugliness demonstrates an attitude: free and unrestrained; ugliness brings certain enlightenment, even if it is just a laugh.

Therefore, the selection is to do joking things with a serious attitude: respect the eclectic creativity, protect the beauty of every form, and pay tribute to the wild imagination and creativity.

In the sloppy yet grand award ceremonies of the past, we can even vaguely see the meaning of inheritance and transcendence .

The winner of the "Ugliest Head" Award, the Green Horse Headgear, symbolizes that "every generation has its own talent" in the headgear industry. From the first Green Fish Headgear that appeared on CCTV programs, to the second Smiling Orange Headgear that took over the baton, at the award ceremony, they proudly shouted "We are letting more people see that ugly things can also be the center of attention and can also be accepted by elegant people."

This year's green horse headgear was selected by the Gansu Provincial Museum, which is "good at bringing cultural relics to life." The design was inspired by the funny shape of the cultural relic "Horse Stepping on Flying Swallow." Before winning the award, it was already a "popular internet celebrity" that swept the short video platforms, and it was once hard to find one both online and offline.

The Big Three of Headgear

The princess style has become a frequent guest in the ugly things selection with its controversial beauty. The winner of this year's "Slightly Uglier" Award - Princess Down Jacket is a popular candidate selected by Douban's "Ugly Things Protection Association" group. It is eye-catching with its bold and bright colors and exaggerated retro style (black). It is in contrast with the previous two annual ugly things winners - Dreamy Pink Butterfly Short Boots and Butterfly Princess Tiger Fighting Tights. Wearing them, you can definitely become a unique little princess.

Princess style dress

The winner of the "ugly" award - the clay face mobile phone case fully embodies the craftsman spirit advocated by the award ceremony - paying tribute to creativity and design. There are many "handmade artists" on Taobao who create unique "ugly mobile phone cases" to attract buyers with unique tastes.

For example, the wool felt buyer's show, the winner of the 2020 Ugly Thing of the Year Award, refreshed the bottom line of hand-made capabilities with a series of wool felt buyer's shows that "there is no ugliest, only uglier". As the award speech at the time said, "There is no end to ugly things, just like our creativity and imagination, there is no end."

Human face clay phone case

Wool Felt Buyer Show

The owner of Naohuamao, the winner of the "Ugly Taste Award", is one of the few Taobao shop owners who actively signed up to participate in the selection. When presenting the award, she admitted that she just wanted to attract some traffic to her store.

Unlike the first award ceremony where store owners were invited to participate but were thought to be scams and were repeatedly rejected, the Taobao Ugly Things Contest has become a force for reverse marketing by linking up with multiple social media topics and integrating Taobao Live and traffic from the Taobao Best Stores List.

Brain Flower Hat

2. Ugly things also want to be loved

Douban's "Ugly Things Protection Association" group has gathered more than 240,000 ugly things lovers. The group adheres to the founding philosophy of "things also want to be loved, and to find bright spots in darkness" , and advocates "ugly things gather together, be happy and joyful, and don't care about other people's eyes". It is committed to discovering ugly things in life and giving them understanding and tolerance, which coincides with Taobao's ugly things selection concept.

Douban "Association for the Protection of Ugly Things"

Dare to admit ugliness, accept ugliness, and even actively buy and share ugliness, which is becoming the choice of some young people. There are three possible explanations for this in psychology: first, the pursuit of novelty and excitement; second, the Pandora effect of "see how ugly it is"; third, the pleasant experience brought by a sense of superiority. Starting from "ugliness" itself, the discussion of "ugliness" in the context of the Internet can be broken down into three levels:

1. “Ugly and cute”

After the Little Frog Doll Costume won the "Notoriously Ugly" award, many netizens complained: "It's obviously cute, how can it be ugly?" In fact, the once popular image IPs such as Kumamon, Peach, Line Friends, Sad Frog, and Nezha have all been evaluated and discussed as "ugly and cute".

Take Pi Tao as an example. In design language, the combination of clear big eyes and cherry mouth is the representative of cuteness. On the contrary, small eyes and sausage mouth are hard to associate with "beauty". This disproportionate design makes people feel "ugly" and absurd at first glance, but "cute" and friendly and lovely at second glance. This design that emphasizes breaking the routine and imbalance makes it have a weird and cute feeling.

Zhou Jiwu pointed out in "Modern Reflections on the End of Art" that "ugliness is the root and essence of comedy", and the clown in opera art is exactly like this. The extraordinary design also gives ugly things a sense of joy and humor , advocating absurdity and comedy, making consumers willingly pay for its fun.

2. Particularly ugly = "particularly ugly"

Beyond conventional aesthetic standards, people who have a special liking for ugliness are also a subculture under mainstream culture. This culture emphasizes seeking inner emotional sustenance, resisting constraints and rules, and promoting the psychology of self. French romantic writer Hugo once said, "Beauty has only one typical type, but ugliness is ever-changing."

All kinds of weird ugly things demonstrate unique vitality and personality, and also represent a unique aesthetic orientation. Uniqueness is also an important reason why ugly things are sought after, which means expressing oneself and promoting individuality.

3. Accepting ugliness is accepting the truth

In China Youth Daily's individual observations of ugly thing lovers, ugly things opened up common topics among friends and narrowed the distance between people. "Acceptance" and "authenticity" are the two major attributes of "ugly things" in social interactions.

In traditional aesthetic theory, "ugliness" is the deformity and deviation from the normal scale of things, and it is a negation of "beauty". Therefore, acknowledging ugly things may mean uniqueness and may even be considered as bad aesthetic taste, but on the other hand, it also means accepting ugliness and diversity, and it is also the freedom to offend aesthetic paradigms and challenge aesthetic boundaries.

Therefore, rather than saying it is "ugly" in all its weirdness, it is better to say it is the "truth" that expresses itself without any concealment.

3. Art depression, potential commercial highland?

The Little Frog Doll Costume, winner of the "Notorious" Award, was already a traffic code for short video platforms before winning the award. With its cute and adorable image and the tragic story of "selling children", it has been widely popular on social media. The frog costume, frogs and urban management, frogs fighting, frogs dancing, etc. have subsequently become a wonderful TV series.

Behind the traffic lies business opportunities. Currently, the sales volume of frog clothing stores on the Pinduoduo platform has exceeded 10,000, and going to the streets wearing frog costumes and selling balloons has become a hot business opportunity.

Pinduoduo Little Frog Doll Costume Product Reviews

As the discussion of "ugliness" increases, the broader commercial value behind "ugliness" is gradually emerging. According to the data from 618 in 2022, the sales of shoes and baby products on JD.com showed that the transaction volume of ugly cute shoes increased by more than 300% year-on-year; the transaction volume of ugly cute children's shoes increased by more than 10 times.

The muscular lucky cat, which was once shortlisted for the ugliest thing on Taobao in 2020, changed the impression of the docile lucky cat with its muscular arms. After the IP image became popular, the designer cooperated with the trendy toy brand TOPTOY to launch a series of products such as the blind box of the powerful lucky cat, with sales of more than 10,000 per box.

TOPTOY Lucky Cat Blind Box

However, commercializing ugliness is not easy.

First of all, the essence of the commercial secret of ugliness comes from the creative design that is just right. Designing something that is loved by people is no easier than designing something beautiful. Even exaggerating or pasting elements can test artistic skills. Some deliberate, empty, and ugly designs are only scary and difficult to resonate with. At present, the "ugly and cute" route with cartoon effects is the easiest way to stand out.

Secondly, not all ugly things have the ability to be commercialized. For example, the sales volume of this year's princess-style down jacket on Taobao platform is only 4 so far. It is not practical enough and makes people laugh but cannot make consumers pay for it.

Third, the popularity of ugliness is often difficult to sustain for a long time. The C position in the headgear industry is updated and replaced, and the doll industry is also fickle. When the enthusiasm of consumers with a curiosity and excitement mentality fades, there are not many people who can stick to it and continue to pay for ugliness.

Fourth, copyright issues have always been a pain point for designers. Out-of-the-box designs can be quickly copied and reproduced, sweeping shopping platforms, and even making it difficult to distinguish between genuine and pirated designs. Taobao even put a small note when introducing quail egg earrings: "The original price is too expensive, give Yiwu some time."

Quail Egg Earrings

IV. Conclusion

When we turn our attention to ugly things, it does not mean advocating for low tastes. Using ugliness to market and gain popularity depends on whether it can show attitude, bring enlightenment, and whether there is room for interesting discussion behind it.

The museum has brought the audience closer through "ugly" cultural creations, making the museum's cultural relics more lively; the indifferent Dali Maneki Neko tells the story of mechanical labor and "forced business", which has a distinct memorable point. No matter how grotesque or playful the form of expression is, the unique and imaginative creative design is always worth paying attention to, and only ugly things that can earn a genuine smile are worthy of respect.

Notes:

1. Shenran: "Ugly things are becoming a business", January 3, 2022

2. Zhang Qi and Lei Qing: "Analysis of the Creation Characteristics and Popularity Factors of "Ugly and Cute" Picture Books", Publishing Wide Angle, Issue 18, 2019

3. Li Danping: “True love or eye-catching? Why do young people prefer ugly things”, July 22, 2022

Author: Zhang Yu (cultural industry critic, researcher at Sanchuanhui Cultural Tourism and Sports Research Institute); Editor: Shi Guang; Editor: Bandao

Source public account: Cultural Industry Review (ID: whcypl), China’s top new media for cultural industry.