Reporter | Lu YibeiEdit | Ma Yueone
On the evening of February 19th, Modern China Tea Shop issued an apology statement in his official Weibo on the accusation that advertising creativity insulted women.
The cause of the incident was that some netizens recently questioned that the copy of the surrounding mugs sold by Modern China Tea Shop insulted women. The theme of the mug copy is "Picking up a basket", which is in Changsha dialect, and Modern China Tea Shop interprets it as: "Cheap, unexpected gains. There are many beautiful women who come to Chayan to buy milk tea. If you happen to know one, you can tell our friends in a low voice:’ I picked up a basket’ ".
Image source: Weibo @ Misogyny Culture Observation RoomMany netizens said that although "picking up the basket" is a Changsha dialect, it is used to describe that meeting strange women is "cheap", which has the meaning of objectifying women and is emotionally disrespectful.
In the apology statement, Modern China Tea Shop explained that as a Changsha brand, many of Cha Yan’s copywriting and design works were inspired by Changsha dialect, and she used "picking up the basket" in the creative process to make it special. She also said that she found something wrong after listing, and quickly made self-examination and revision, replacing the copywriting with the topic related to discount points. However, due to the lack of internal consensus in the revision process, there are still inappropriate copywriting outflows.
The apology statement also said: "We will immediately recall this batch of Changsha dialect theme mugs. We will also seriously reflect on the reasons behind this incident and improve our work from the aspects of creative scale, creative management and product management. "
However, judging from this apology comment, netizens did not buy it. And then, Modern China Tea Shop also boarded the hot search in Weibo.
It was found that not only this mug, but also many similar vulgar copywriting that caused women’s dissatisfaction in Modern China Tea Shop.
For example, Modern China Tea Shop once launched a tea bag with the theme of "I want an official". The outer packaging is printed with a tadpole pattern, and the text is "The routine comes out, sooner or later, this set, the mouth says no, the body is very honest"; Another mug printed with the words "Royal Girl" has also been questioned. Some people think that "Girl" refers to the cover-pouring code of powder in Hunan dialect, but others think that such ambiguous words can not be used at all.
Image source: Weibo @ Misogyny Culture Observation Room
Image source: Weibo @ Misogyny Culture Observation RoomAmid voices questioning its response, Modern China Tea Shop issued a second apology statement overnight, apologizing for the content insulting women in its product advertisements.
In the second apology statement, Modern China Tea Shop’s wording was more cautious, saying that the last response to avoid the old things was really naive. "Early brands were constantly expanding their possibilities, and they did not grasp the boundaries of creation properly, and mistakenly took the smart and the ball-cutting as creative inspiration." And explain its propaganda copy and other similar products, and the creation time is about 2014-2015. After the product was launched, there were also great differences within the company, so in the follow-up self-examination and self-correction, similar products were immediately taken off the shelf.
Modern China Tea Shop told Interface News that its questioned online sales channels of mugs have been completely removed from the shelves, and stores have requested to remove them. These days, they will supervise and check the implementation.
Modern China Tea Shop overturned because of vulgar marketing, largely because he broke through the low line in marketing. People’s Daily commented that any means and routines that try to challenge the public bottom line and break through the humorous boundary will not only add color, but will be counterproductive.
Modern China Tea Shop was once favored for its geographical aura.
Different from national tea brands such as Xicha, Naixue and Lujiao Lane, Modern China Tea Shop will only open stores in Changsha, Hunan before 2020. 270 direct-operated stores almost filled the city. In the process of Changsha becoming a tourist city in online celebrity, Modern China Tea Shop has gradually become a landmark brand because of its focus on Chinese style, its ability to export local culture of Changsha, and its dense stores. Because of Modern China Tea Shop’s high popularity, some customers from other places have found a substitute drink on idle fish before, and even many fans posted a "book of ten thousand people’s blood" on social platforms, begging it to get out of Changsha.
At this stage, Modern China Tea Shop hardly encountered any doubts about the content of his copy. Changsha people regard it as pride, and outsiders queue up to punch in for a cup of tea. No one magnifies whether the creative inspiration of this tea brand is appropriate or not, or when flowers are blooming, the voice of doubt is drowned out.
But now, it took seven years for Modern China Tea Shop to finally walk out of Changsha. It is also really popular. On December 1st, 2020, the first store in Wuhan, Modern China Tea Shop officially opened in wuhan heaven and earth Xintiandi Plaza. The business circle put up a fence overnight, and there was a long queue at the door of the store early on the opening day. Some guests waited for 8 hours to buy a cup of tea with milk tea.
Previously, Modern China Tea Shop’s regional aura can no longer be a kind of umbrella. It must face the interpretation from various voices and operate with stricter standards. As he said in his apology, "we have indeed passed the early stage of one person talking and ten people listening." Modern China Tea Shop, are you really ready?
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