Yonghe Soy Milk, a mainland Chinese food brand, has recently been involved in a controversy over vulgar marketing tactics. An authorized sales account with over 4 million followers was found to be promoting soy milk through videos featuring activities such as taking a shower and changing into stockings. The customer service of Shanghai Yonghe Food Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of Yonghe Soy Milk’s official flagship store, confirmed that the account in question was supplied by the brand.
According to a report by “Consumer Report” on September 16th, a video posted by “Yonghe Soy Milk Instant Drink Flagship Store” showed a woman entering a shower, wearing a lace suspender skirt, and changing into black stockings.
The video, which is 4 minutes and 5 seconds long, includes the aforementioned scenes for about 15 seconds, which are unrelated to soy milk and only transitions into product promotion in the latter half.
Another account named “Yonghe Soy Milk Light Snack Flagship Store” was also found to have posted similar content, including a female anchor in revealing clothing, with the video starting from a waking up scene.
“Yonghe Soy Milk Instant Drink Flagship Store” has around 4.057 million fans, far surpassing the official Yonghe Soy Milk flagship store’s 607,000 fans.
The related videos have sparked doubts among netizens. Comments questioned the relevance of changing stockings and soy milk, and whether Yonghe Soy Milk is crossing ethical boundaries. Some pointed out that these unrelated plotlines were used to increase video completion rates, while others stated that if the product is good enough, it shouldn’t rely on vulgar content to attract consumers.
Business registration data shows that the certified entity of “Yonghe Soy Milk Instant Drink Flagship Store” is Hangzhou Kuai Ba Mao Trading Co., Ltd., and for “Yonghe Soy Milk Light Snack Flagship Store” is Hangzhou Wei Wo Trading Co., Ltd. Both companies have no equity relationship with Shanghai Yonghe Food Technology Co., the operator of the official Yonghe Soy Milk flagship store.
Shanghai Yonghe’s customer service confirmed to “Consumer Report” that the brand authorizes other companies to sell the products, and the accounts in question are authorized by the brand and supplied by them.
The customer service also mentioned that the company has departments monitoring authorized accounts on a daily basis. However, as of the time of writing, the brand has not yet announced the outcome of how the accounts involved will be handled.
Yonghe Soy Milk is not the first brand to be embroiled in controversy due to authorized sales accounts publishing vulgar content. In July of this year, a SuBoer authorized store released several vulgar AI-assisted sales videos, including scenarios of men intruding into women’s bathrooms and toilets. The content caused controversy in August and was taken down, with SuBoer admitting to oversight in content management and publishing review in authorized stores.
Previously reported by “Chinese Consumer Report,” when operating the “Haihe Milk Flagship Store,” a Tianjin Haihe Dairy authorized distributor frequently used sexually suggestive dialect terms during live broadcasts, combined with indecent gestures to attract viewer retention.