Why is Luckin Coffee facing a false advertising complaint?

Luckin Coffee's Persimmon Daifuku, a dessert tied to its Spring Festival New Year Red Dragon Latte collaboration with artist Han Meilin, drew complaints that group-buy promotion images misrepresented the actual product. The promotion showed a plump daifuku with a filling described as entirely persimmon jam, but buyers said the delivered item differed, and the case sparked discussion about false advertising and who should be held responsible.

Opinions split on the cause. Some consumers argue Luckin cannot avoid blame for lax review of promotional material, while others point to group-buy bloggers who reuse images from other products to earn commissions. The episode follows Luckin's second Moutai collaboration, which did not repeat the earlier sauce-flavored latte buying surge, and it puts brand marketing review and consumer trust under scrutiny.

As the Spring Festival approaches, major coffee chains are rolling out promotional new products to capture holiday traffic. After Luckin Coffee partnered with Moutai for a second time to launch the Year of the Dragon sauce-flavored chocolate, it quickly followed up with the "New Year Red Dragon Latte" co-branded with Han Meilin and a matching dessert, Persimmon Daifuku. However, this dessert, which was highly anticipated, has been criticized by consumers, who say the group-buy promotion seriously misrepresents the actual product, sparking heated discussion about false advertising and where responsibility lies. Some netizens believe Luckin cannot escape blame for lax review, while others point out that the root cause is some group-buy bloggers using materials from other products to earn commissions. Behind this incident, the review mechanisms of brand marketing and the issue of consumer trust are worth pondering.

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With the Spring Festival approaching, major coffee chains are racing to launch promotional campaigns, hoping to seize holiday traffic before the festival and boost sales of new products. Luckin Coffee recently teamed up with Moutai again to launch the Year of the Dragon sauce-flavored chocolate, but this collaboration failed to replicate the buying frenzy when the "Sauce-Flavored Latte" debuted.

Luckin did not stop there. It subsequently launched merchandise featuring its celebrity spokesperson to attract fan purchases, and quickly put on sale the "New Year Red Dragon Latte" co-branded with Han Meilin, along with the matching dessert "Persimmon Daifuku."

Many loyal Luckin fans were full of anticipation for another collaboration with Han Meilin, and rushed to check in as soon as the new products launched. Similar to last year, this Spring Festival co-branding received a large amount of praise. However, recently, a netizen posted on social media complaining that Luckin's new dessert Persimmon Daifuku was suspected of false advertising.

The incident began when the netizen saw a group-buy promotion for Luckin's Persimmon Daifuku on another platform. In the promotional images, the Persimmon Daifuku looked plump and full, with the cream filling made entirely of persimmon jam, and the visual effect was very tempting, so the netizen placed an order. But the actual product received differed noticeably from the group-buy promotional video: it was smaller, and the cream inside had only a faint persimmon flavor.

Like this netizen, quite a few consumers were "tricked" into ordering by the exquisite promotional images in the group-buy links. Some commented: "Who would have thought the gap with the real thing would be so big? Luckin really knows how to play the line 'specifics subject to the actual product,'" "Luckin's desserts fool you every time, and every trick is different. My intelligence has been insulted," "A day when I was successfully scammed by Luckin."

Regarding this matter, some netizens also believe Luckin should not take the blame. Some netizens revealed that this kind of group-buy blogger, in order to attach links so more people buy group-buy vouchers and thus earn commissions, will put images and videos from other products onto other goods. Luckin's Persimmon Daifuku group-buy promotion probably encountered this kind of marketing blogger, and their exaggerated promotion led some consumers to form incorrect perceptions of the product.

"These people are traffic-chasing voucher sellers. They basically all freestyle their shots, and their main goal is commissions by any means," "Nowadays, don't believe anything bloggers shoot, don't be deceived again and again," "Those marketing bloggers post randomly, using other brands' persimmon snow skin mooncakes." Some even believe that the responsibility for this matter lies with the netizens themselves who placed orders after credulously trusting video bloggers, and Luckin should not be blamed.

But some netizens believe Luckin is not entirely innocent, and that Luckin should have specifically reviewed such group-buy promotions. "It really has something to do with Luckin. These bloggers all do cloud editing. The merchant provides materials, and the influencer edits and publishes them, earning editing fees and CPS," "Luckin will ultimately be responsible for reviewing these ads. If they don't pass review, they simply won't be allowed to publish."

Regardless of whether the videos posted by these promotional influencers are individual acts or are reviewed by Luckin before publication, using images of a non-product in promotional videos itself constitutes false advertising. If this is not stopped and consumers are misled as a result, they will naturally leave negative reviews after receiving the actual product, which is not good for Luckin's brand operations.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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