Why Did a Street Coffee Sign Pairing Go Viral in Ningbo?

At an alley entrance in Cicheng Ancient Town, Ningbo, the round signs of Chagee and Starbucks ended up side by side on an old stone wall. The red and green emblems resemble public restroom directional signs, so netizens paired the tea chain and the coffee chain into a red-and-green couple.

The joke spread quickly online, with comments such as "Chinese women's restroom vs. foreign women's restroom." Chagee has benchmarked Starbucks and set sales targets, and a caffeine response about its Wanli Mulan drink became an insomnia meme. Front Street Coffee notes the two brands are not direct competitors in product terms.

When the red songstress meets the green mermaid, an online carnival sparked by a coincidental sign placement unfolds. Chagee and Starbucks—one sells tea, the other coffee—were paired by netizens into a red-green CP at the alley entrance of Cicheng Ancient Town in Ningbo. From jokes about "Chinese women's restroom vs. foreign women's restroom," to Chagee benchmarking Starbucks and setting sales targets on International Tea Day, to the insomnia meme triggered by the response about the caffeine content of "Wanli Mulan," the two brands keep colliding both offline in the same frame and online in trending topics. Front Street Coffee takes you through the fun and real rivalry behind this "public toilet commercial war."

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Starbucks and Chagee—one specializes in coffee, the other in tea drinks; one has a green mermaid logo, the other a red songstress image. Whether by brand logo or product line, the two don't seem to be in direct competition—at most, they're just peers. However, recently, these two brands have frequently been spotted together offline by netizens, even forcibly paired into a "WC CP."

Previously, a netizen visiting Cicheng Ancient Town in Ningbo saw the large circular signs of Chagee and Starbucks at an alley entrance, found the scene quite interesting, and photographed it to share on social media with the caption: "Chinese women never admit defeat."

This in itself is not unusual, but coincidentally, standing in the middle, the two logos are placed on the ancient town buildings exactly left and right, thus "colliding" into a CP. Even more coincidentally, against the backdrop of the scenic area's stone wall decor, the red and green resemble public restroom directional signs. Just like that, two "women" plus a group of gossipy netizens' sudden whims forced Chagee and Starbucks into a "public toilet commercial war."

"Two women who keep you awake" "I thought it was a competition between two public toilets" "Left is the Chinese women's restroom, right is the foreign women's restroom" "Sister Ji has collarbones, meaning drinking tea makes you thinner than drinking coffee"

"Starbucks wins! Because it has two votes, Chagee has zero"

Besides the wildly imaginative comments, the CP formed by Chagee and Starbucks also inspired netizens' creativity, swapping the colors of the two logos to transform them into a green songstress and a red mermaid. It's unknown what the brands think, but netizens seem thoroughly immersed in this "WC commercial war," even wanting to declare a winner.

Facts prove that the relationship between Chagee and Starbucks is not as harmonious as it appears on the surface. For example, on International Tea Day a few days ago, Chagee set a small goal benchmarking Starbucks: surpassing Starbucks China in sales in China—one could say the tension is maxed out.

And in terms of offline stores, the two brands Chagee and Starbucks do often appear together—either side by side or stacked vertically, any arrangement seems to maximize the CP vibe, making netizens passing by exclaim "they really look like good sisters." One would have thought red and blue make a CP since ancient times, but now Chagee and Starbucks have forcibly paired into a red-green CP.

Since "Wanli Mulan" was rumored to cause insomnia after drinking and sparked heated discussion, Chagee finally responded a few days ago regarding the cause of consumers' insomnia: the caffeine content of one cup of "Wanli Mulan" is approximately equal to one cup of "latte" of the same size. Wait—such a response soon reminded people of a meme image from netizens:

Chinese tea = coffee = insomnia

Image source: Internet

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