text｜Su Tingting, Editor｜Qiao Qian
Another "accident" caused by offending female users has caused a reputation to overturn.
Recently, talk show actor Li Dan promoted the women's underwear brand Ubras on his personal Weibo, but the slogan "A equipment that allows women to easily win the workplace" has caused controversy, and related topics have also appeared on hot searches on Weibo.
Screenshot of Li Dan’s Weibo
Brand and Li Dan seem to want to use a "smart" way to market topics, but they did not expect it to be counterproductive. Some netizens believe that the advertisement has a tendency to "offend women", and some netizens protested under the Ubras brand and Li Dan’s Weibo, saying that they would not buy Ubras brand underwear again. People sighed, why did Li Dan, who is so smart, be confused this time?
Just as the discussion about the incident continued to ferment, the brand immediately issued an apology statement on February 24: "We deeply apologize for the discomfort caused to everyone by improper wording in marketing and promotion, and removed the relevant content as soon as possible."
Ubras apology statement
Li Dan also forwarded Ubras apology statement the next day and said, "The wording is indeed inappropriate. As a language worker, when I got this copy, I should be more aware of the impact it brings... This time it is my bad, reflect on me, and thank you for your criticism."
Ubras, a women's underwear brand founded in 2016, is loved by many female consumers for its design concept of "abandoning steel rings and thick sponges". According to Tianyan Check data, Ubras completed a Series A financing of RMB 50 million in 2018 and completed a Series B+ financing in 2020 with a total amount of RMB 100 million.
Currently, Ubras has 3.21 million fans in Taobao flagship store, of which Ouyang Nana's unsize vest bra sold 50,000+ per month, and was ranked first in the "bra list" on the Tmall list.
36Kr once mentioned in the article that the popularity of China's local comfort underwear industry is behind a systematic transition of the era, which is the common result of capital push and channel change, but more core is the transformation of women's consumption and aesthetic concepts.
Ubras, which focuses on "self-pleasing", benefits from this transformation. No one expected it to shout such a slogan, leaving people with the impression of disrespect for women.
marketing is no longer new to playing the "opposite sex card"
In fact, the goal of using "opposite sex" to market and promote consumer goods for women has long been there.
In 1996, Japanese cosmetics company Jialibao (Kanebo) invited Takuya Kimura , who was 24 years old at the time, to shoot a lipstick advertisement. Takuya Kimura became the first male star to endorse lipstick, and also changed the marketing ideas of the advertising industry at that time. After the
ad was broadcast, the "Kimura lipstick" was repeatedly out of stock. The director of the publicity department of Jialibao Company at that time said: "It was the right choice to boldly use Takuya Kimura as the spokesperson. In this industry, as long as 500,000 lipsticks were sold, it was considered a hot-selling product. The lipsticks sold for that promotion were about 3 million in two months."
Jialibao lipstick poster
In the past two years, more and more Chinese male stars have joined the ranks of endorsement of cosmetics. Liu Haoran once endorsed Maybelline New York Metal Lipstick, Guerlain officially announced that Yang Yang became the spokesperson for the entire line, and Yass Lauder also cooperated with Hua Chenyu to launch a limited edition Mars red lipstick with color number 310.
Male stars have become the favorite of beauty brands. In addition to their good appearance, these selected "young actors" also have the most valued fan traffic by brands, as well as the purchasing power of these fans who "can slew wildly and consume generously."
Although it is not a legitimate brand spokesperson, Ubras' invitation to Li Dan to bring goods is also a similar logic.
The entertainment consumption big data report released by Alibaba shows that "With the rise of the national trend, Chinese pop music, crosstalk, folk arts and talk shows with Chinese characteristics have gradually become a trend of entertainment consumption. In the past year, the per capita annual consumption of post-95s audiences has reached 893 yuan, an annual growth rate of 11% higher than the overall population and a 24% higher than the pre-80s, becoming a new driving force for the growth of the audience market."
chose Li Dan. Ubras is fighting for young women who like talk shows, have purchasing power, and are willing to spend money on their favorite brands.
Why did this crash this time?
Ubras marketing crash, behind which is exposed is the old and "father-like" thinking of brand marketers - thought that by hiring the popular talk show actors today, everything would be fine, but in fact, it completely ignored the current social atmosphere and real context.
On the one hand, "her economy" has risen, and a large number of professional women have higher incomes, and then gained the power of free consumption that matches it, and became consumption decision makers in many social relations; on the other hand, with the past two years# Feminist thoughts such as MeToo# swept the world, and women's issues began to become sensitive and complex.
But proud brands seem to repeatedly ignore the "danger".
Some time ago, 六国新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新新The offended female consumers will vote with their feet and will not pay for insulting 'creatives'. "
Not long after, Cha Yan Yuese also fell into a public opinion storm due to insufficient marketing creativity. On February 19, a Weibo user submitted a post saying that the advertising copy of Cha Yan Yuese mugs and tea bags on the packaging of tea bags and other "I want to" discriminate against and insult women. In response, Cha Yan Yuese's official blog issued two apology statements on the evening of the same day and the early morning of the next day. Although the incident However, it has subsided, but some netizens said that there are so many milk tea brands, it’s okay if Cha Yan Yuese doesn’t drink it.
A bigger storm occurred on B. The broadcast of the animation "Reincarnation of No Job" in January this year was accused of “incorrect views” and “suspected insulting women” and was removed from the shelves. Before the Lunar New Year, many brands such as Youkesi, Shike Glasses Network, and Sophie queued up to issue statements, announcing the termination of advertising cooperation with B.
It is hard to say that the large-scale boycott behavior initiated by users is rational and without moral flaws, but the backlash caused by the "gender issue" is enough to sound a wake-up call to the platforms and brands.
Back to the beginning case, what the brand did not think clearly is that in a highly competitive society, if you want to win respect, no woman can easily "win". If you stare at women with an old eyes, you will only lose them in the end.
Under the stimulation of traffic logic, many brands' marketing is chasing "extraordinary" and "out of the circle". After all, the audience's attention is limited, but such ideas are easy to go wrong. How brands avoid the risks brought by gender issues in marketing is the most important thing: be more sincere and less routine.
