How does the Coconut Palm livestream case relate to coffee knowledge?

Hainan Coconut Palm Group drew widespread criticism over its Douyin livestreaming style, and the market supervision bureau says it has received multiple reports and is studying a handling plan. The stream, which began at 20:00 on October 8, featured four female hosts in tight tops and black shorts dancing while promoting coconut juice. Sessions were repeatedly cut off by the platform.

Sales per session averaged only a few thousand yuan. The brand had previously been fined twice for violating good social customs and was questioned over false marketing claims, including a breast enhancement miracle. The case matters beyond coffee knowledge circles because it tests how platforms and regulators treat provocative livestream selling by established food brands.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex. Recently, Hainan Coconut Palm Group sparked widespread controversy over its Douyin livestreaming style, and the market supervision bureau has responded that it has received multiple reports and is studying a handling plan. The Coconut Palm livestream room features female hosts in tight clothing dancing enthusiastically to sell products, and the livestreams have repeatedly been cut off by the platform, with average transaction sales per session of only a few thousand yuan. Previously, the brand was fined twice for violating good social customs, and was also questioned for false marketing over claims such as "breast enhancement miracle." This article will sort through the course of events, regulatory responses, and the brand's historical penalty records.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange, more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Recently, Coconut Palm Group — a Hainan enterprise long known as a "veteran" in the marketing field — launched a livestream selling model on its official Douyin account. However, the overall style of the livestream room quickly stirred up considerable controversy online. At present, the market supervision administration has made a statement on the matter, saying it has received multiple reports, is closely following the issue, and has begun studying corresponding handling measures.

On the evening of October 8, Coconut Palm Group started its livestream on time at 20:00 as previously announced. The whole scene was still the familiar formula: the livestream room used light blue as the background, and four female hosts introduced products while performing dance routines. These female hosts were uniformly dressed in tight long-sleeved tops, paired with black shorts, wearing masks printed with Coconut Palm's classic packaging design, and holding Coconut Palm coconut juice in their hands as they danced enthusiastically and promoted the products in front of the camera.

Perhaps because a large number of netizens had already been eagerly waiting before the broadcast began, the number of viewers quickly exceeded 50,000 as soon as the livestream started. However, just a few minutes later, the Douyin platform cut off the livestream signal. About ten minutes later the livestream resumed, but after continuing for another five minutes it was interrupted by the platform again. It is understood that similar interruptions also occurred multiple times during the livestream on October 5, after which the account stopped broadcasting for two days.

Platform data shows that Coconut Palm Group has so far conducted six livestreams, has reached 234,000 followers, with a peak concurrent online audience of more than 50,000, and cumulative livestream views of 560,000, but the transaction amount for each livestream was roughly between 2,500 yuan and 5,000 yuan.

On October 8, in response to netizens' questions about its "borderline marketing," a relevant person in charge of Coconut Palm Group explained that choosing to livestream was out of the need for product promotion, but that he was not clear about how netizens evaluated the livestream room and did not yet have relevant information at hand.

Public records show that Coconut Palm Group Hainan Coconut Juice Beverage Co., Ltd. was registered and established in February 1998, with Zhang Wu as the legal representative, registered capital of approximately 52.86 million yuan, and a business scope covering the production, sales, and wholesale of beverages. According to shareholder information from Tianyancha, the company's shares are jointly held by Hainan Yeye Industrial Co., Ltd. and Coconut Palm Group Co., Ltd.

On the morning of October 9, the group-related topic "#CoconutPalmWasFinedTwiceForViolatingGoodSocialCustoms#" even surged onto the Weibo hot search list. Tianyancha's risk records indeed show that this company was once fined twice for "obstructing public order or violating good social customs," in amounts of 200,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan respectively.

It is understood that both penalties occurred in 2019. At that time, Coconut Palm coconut juice directly printed an image of a "busty beauty" on its new packaging, and the advertising copy also bluntly highlighted the selling point of a "breast enhancement miracle," ultimately being fined 200,000 yuan by the local market supervision and administration department for obstructing public order or violating good social customs.

The other instance was in early 2021, when Coconut Palm Group was summoned for talks by the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau over a recruitment advertisement containing content such as "enroll and you'll have a car, a house, a high salary, and surely beautiful women and handsome men chasing you." On April 30 of the same year, the Hainan Market Supervision Bureau imposed a total fine of 400,000 yuan on Hainan Coconut Juice Beverage Co., Ltd., of which 380,000 yuan was for advertisements published by Coconut Palm Group that violated good social customs.

Many people feel that advertising content of this kind from the Coconut Palm brand is vulgar, heavily paternalistic, and even suspected of false advertising, and that every marketing campaign easily leads consumers to associate the product's effects with "breast enhancement." Coconut Palm has also admitted that this was done to highlight the breast enhancement effect of Coconut Palm coconut milk, but in reality, there is no scientific basis whatsoever to support this claim.

For this reason, Coconut Palm was not only criticized and fined by the industry and commerce authorities, but was also listed by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications as a negative typical case, and its applications for the trademarks "from childhood" and "drink until grown" were also rejected.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.