Chinese Brands Drop Mbappé After Mao Remark Backlash
Two Chinese giants ended their Mbappé deals within a day after a viral Mao joke. It's a masterclass in local sacred values and celebrity risk.
Kylian Mbappé lost two major Chinese sponsors in a single day after a viral video reopened a cultural fault line. Beverage maker Dongpeng and dairy giant Mengniu both announced they were ending their partnerships with immediate effect.
What happened
The clip showed Mbappé saying the funniest meme he had seen was his face edited onto a Chinese historical figure he described as a dictator. That was understood as a reference to Mao Zedong, China’s founding leader, who died in 1976. In China, jokes about Mao remain a serious social taboo.
Dongpeng said it had “a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments.” Mengniu used nearly identical language about anything that hurts the feelings of the Chinese people. The story became a top-trending topic on Weibo, with users urging Dongpeng to remove Mbappé’s image from its packaging.
Why it matters for brand managers
A celebrity endorsement is borrowed meaning. The star brings attention, but the brand also inherits their entire public record, including off-hand jokes that do not travel well across markets.
This is where sacred values enter consumer psychology. Some symbols are not ordinary preferences; they are tied to identity and history. When a partner appears to mock them, the audience experiences moral outrage and expects the brand to make a public choice. Silence can read as approval. Speed reads as respect.
The framework: local audits before global signings
Dongpeng and Mengniu did not debate the nuance of Mbappé’s intent. They acted within a day. That is brand safety in practice: avoid associations that can become a local liability.
Before signing a global celebrity, run the question through local teams:
- Map cultural red lines in each priority market.
- Review past interviews, memes and off-hand comments.
- Pre-approve response language for a cultural flashpoint.
- Decide who makes the call when local and global views conflict.
The context
Mbappé had addressed the memes in a September interview, saying some of the edits felt harmless but others involved figures who had caused real suffering. That nuance did not protect him. The backlash arrived a day after he lost the Ballon d’Or to Harry Kane.
Source: ETBrandEquity.com
