Ubras Faces Massive Backlash Male Celebrity’s Sexist Post
Last week, a celebrity scandal went to Weibo’s hot topic ranking board. Netizens criticized male talk show celebrity Li Dan (李诞) for publishing a post they deemed sexist. The post was a sponsored post in collaboration with Ubras, a top-ranked Chinese underwear brand which is famous for its one-size-fits-all bras.
Check out our previous unboxing video and article about Ubras to learn more about the brand.
Here’s What Happened
On February 24, Li posted a Weibo post sponsored by Ubras. Here is what he said in Chinese:
“我的职场救身衣，一个让女性轻松躺赢职场的装备@Ubras品牌官方，我说没有我带不了的货，你就说不信吧.”
In English, this can be translated as “Ubras’ bras are a career life vest and they are a tool for women to win easily at work. I previously told you there was no product I couldn’t promote, still don’t believe me?”
The post quickly drew lots of attention with people saying why on earth would a bra make a women’s career easier? Has Li worn a bra before? If not, why was he speaking for a bra brand?
What makes matters worse is the phrase that he used “躺赢” which literally translated is to “win while lying down”. It is often used in the sense of winning easily without any effort, but obviously it could also be insinuated as a woman doing sexual favors to climb up the career ladder…especially when the phrase is being used to promote a BRA.
Netizens began to question if Li meant that women will only achieve success due to their sexual effort. Did he think women aren’t capable of being successful with their own ability and power?
People thought his post was disrespectful towards women and quickly announced boycotts against both him and Ubras.
On the same day, Ubras apologized on its official Weibo account, saying its mission was still providing the most comfortable bras for women. The day after, Li posted on Weibo, saying he was unintentional and he would mind his words and behaviours in the future.
Technically He Shouldn’t Have Been Promoting the Brand Anyway…
Ubras has done very well in the past 2 years. Though it was only founded in 2016, it managed to become #1 in the underwear category on Tmall in 2020. It became successful due to its signature one-size-fits-all bras as well as its brilliant marketing campaigns.
But this time, when it wanted to play around the phrase “females & careers”, instead of being empowering it obviously made a mistake and was criticized for not being respectful to women.
Besides Li’s words, people were also simply angry that Ubras would hire a male celebrity to speak for the brand. Legally, according to the advertisement law, brand ambassadors have to use the product or the service personally before they can do an advertisement for it. Obviously there is no way he could truly do that.
However, in recent years, we’ve seen so many male celebrities speaking for female brands such as makeup brands (although in this case they can actually try the product) and Lin Yilun (林依轮), a popular male live streamer once sold women’s underwear products in his livestream as well. So this is not the first time this has happened. But consumers were very disappointed in Ubras for choosing a male spokesperson.
Other Brands Having Trouble Due to Misuse of Feminism
Women in China are speaking up for themselves more and more. More women have higher degrees than men, and many women have become entrepreneurs and leaders in large companies. In a previous article we talked about how brands successfully tapped into feminism in China, but like this example with Ubras, many brands are making mistakes.
PurCotton
For example, at the beginning of 2021, PurCotton (全棉时代), a personal care brand, posted an advertisement video showing a girl going back home late in the evening who was being followed by a man. The girl was scared and she thought of an idea. She used makeup remover tissue from PurCotton and quickly removed her makeup. The contrast of her before and after and her face without any makeup scared the man away.
Emm, this is a really bad idea. Chinese netizens were not happy with PurCotton’s uglifying females, and there was a lot of backlash with many people saying that the ad is very insulting.
Chayan Yuese
Another brand, which we have mentioned in our previous article, is Chayan Yuese or Sexy Tea (茶颜悦色). It is a new beverage brand which used to be the TOP1 most liked brand, surpassing Hey Tea (喜茶) and Nayuki Tea (奈雪的茶).
In the middle of February, netizens found that Chayan’s advertising copy was very insulting. Why? It was selling mugs that said things like “捡篓子” (Jian Lou Zi) or “官人我要” (Guan Ren Wo Yao). Jian Lou Zi is a slang term, which means getting something at a low price. On the mug, Chayan was telling consumers that because there were many pretty girls buying Chayan’s beverages, and if you happen to encounter one and talk to her, you can say 我捡了一个篓子.
Did Chayan mean girls are cheap? Because of this and other sensitive advertising copies, Chayan apologized twice on Weibo and was called out by People’s Daily (人民日报), the mouth of the Chinese government.
Bilibili
Popular video platform Bilibili was also involved in a feminism-related scandal in January. It allowed a comic called “无职转生” to be broadcasted, which was said to be very insulting for females. Because of this, many brands made announcements saying that they won’t run campaigns on Bilibili anymore.
Our Take
In terms of marketing, well the Ubras scandal certainly brought attention to the brand…but not good attention. Hopefully the Ubras will be more careful with their sponsored content in the future.
And as for Li Dan, he may have simply just not thought things through….OR he may be using this scandal to gain traffic and grow his follower base, and then do something good to impress the public and start selling more products. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
In terms of feminism, content that empowers and supports women can be an extremely effective way to connect with China’s female consumers. However, brands need to be careful. Don’t overplay it, respect women from the heart and be sincere.
And don’t have men speak on behalf of women…especially when it comes to bras and underwear.
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