Leading Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei is one of the main advertisers of CCTV’s annual Spring Festival Gala, but this year, it seems Apple has managed to sneak into the immensely popular event without having to lift a finger.
In a now-deleted photo, the Gala’s host Neghmet Rakhman posted a picture of himself and several performers excitedly holding up iPhones for selfies.
The photo quickly went viral with netizens blowing up the comments section, many ridiculing him, with one writing, “Didn’t you all say you love using Chinese products?”
Yikes. Will Neghmet still be allowed to host the next year’s Gala?
The 41-year-old has often been heard boasting about Chinese products, but it looks like he would rather use an iPhone in this instance.
Neghmet then posted another picture of himself holding up a Huawei phone for a selfie with the other hosts, attracting further ridicule from netizens.
This wasn’t the only time Apple made an appearance at this year’s show.
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s performance of ‘Lonely Warrior’, also saw two obviously Apple laptops on his left and right while he played the drums.
But it seems CCTV deliberately blocked the logo which had many laughing at the feeble attempt.
“Did you block Apple because they refused to buy ads?” jeered one netizen while another complained, “Huawei advertised so much, is it so hard to use their computers?”
Huawei has been heavily featured in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala since 2019 with various phone models and computers appearing in skits, cross-talk segments and advertisements.
According to CCTV, the Spring Festival Gala is deemed China’s most watched television show.
It broke viewership records with 2.8 billion domestic viewers this year, an increase of 690 million from 2024.