It is already almost a norm in China that food manufacturers often use exaggerated terms or claims in their advertisements to sell their products. Surprisingly, these happen not only among small and medium companies but also by leading industry players who already have commanding share in the market.
One recent controversy is the luxury ice cream brand, Chicecream or better known as ‘Zhong Xue Gao’ which was accused by netizens of overpricing its products and claiming its products to contain rare ingredients like the Rmb 66 (US$9.17) Ecuadorian Pink Diamond ice cream stick which it claims to feature a rare pink cocoa from Ecuador. The manufacturer is facing suspicion of false promotion and quality issues. Chicecream often made claims which are unsupported for instance, it once claimed that its ‘raw materials have won international awards’ and that the ice cream was ‘pure buttermilk flavor without adding a drop of water’. Both were later found to be untrue. In 2022, videos posted online showed that its products did not melt or melted very slowly in heat, raising fears that its ingredients could potentially be harmful.
With the rise in bad publicity. Chicecream faces ongoing financial woes and court penalty which it is yet to resolve.
Meanwhile, another major player, Nongfu Spring, the country’s largest bottled water producer, has become the latest target by netizens for its ‘offensive’ packaging. Consumers claimed that Nongfu Spring is using images of Japanese religious buildings on its packaging, although the bottler denied the claim and insisted that is using artistic creations based on a Chinese temple and the text on the bottle is about Japanese tea culture originating from China. Many Chinese consumers believe that Nongfu’s motives may be driven by marketing strategies aimed at leveraging foreign cultural elements to capture consumer attention. Unfortunately, this strategy backfires.
The recent ‘hate’ episode also occurs after accusations by general Chinese consumers that Nongfu Spring’s Founder, Zhong Shanshan made his billion dollar fortune by ‘undermining’ his former partner, Zong Qinghou, the Founder of rival drinks firm Wahaha. The claims surfaced amid a nationwide mourning period for Zong after his death. This has caused tremendous damage to Nongfu Spring brand and its business as netizens reacted by boycotting the brand products.
Earlier in 2021, Nongfu Spring faced consumer backlash for marketing its peach-flavored sparkling water of which the peach ingredients were sourced from Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture.
In China, the spirit of nationalism is very strong and it can have immediate repercussions to brand owners who are implicated as in the case of Nongfu Spring. Enterpreneurs who are affected basically would just have to ‘keep a low profile and avoid the spotlight and let this negative episode fades away gradually’.
