Three brands walk away
Kylian Mbappé is facing a major backlash in China. Beverage giant Dongpeng, dairy group Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground all announced on Tuesday that they were ending their partnerships with the Real Madrid forward with immediate effect. The three companies used almost identical wording, citing “zero tolerance” for words and actions that hurt national feelings.
All three had made heavy use of his name and image, including AI-generated adverts that ran during the last World Cup.
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What set it off
The row stems from a video shared online in which Mbappé appears to talk about memes made of him, saying the funniest one he has seen is his face edited onto a man he believes to be “a Chinese dictator”. It seems to refer to a meme that puts his features on an image of Mao Zedong. AFP’s digital verification team could not initially confirm the video is authentic, and Mbappé is believed to have had nothing to do with the edit itself.
Mao, who died in 1976 and proclaimed the People’s Republic in 1949, is still officially described as a hero in China.
Online fury and new measures
On Weibo, the topic “Dongpeng ends cooperation with Mbappé” drew 430 million views. One user called it a red line crossed, another said they would never buy Dongpeng or Mengniu products again unless legal action is taken against the player.
Mbappé has also been blocked from posting on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), where he has 1.1 million followers, for “violating community rules”, according to the account linked to his name. Beijing has since said a shared rejection among Chinese people is natural, according to reports on Tuesday morning.
The backlash comes a day after Mbappé lost out on the Ballon d’Or to Harry Kane, and other major athletes have previously faced strong reactions over remarks about Xi Jinping, Taiwan or Hong Kong.
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