What Went Wrong With the Luckin Coffee Co-Branded Pen?

Luckin Coffee's third Tom and Jerry collaboration launched a New Zealand Cheese Latte along with limited merchandise, including a face-changing pen, plush blanket, and insulated tumbler. Buyers report that after a few presses the printed character faces in the pen barrel window peel, become mottled, or disappear, and complaint posts with photos have spread on social platforms.

The pen sold quickly because earlier Luckin merchandise leaned on fridge magnets, keychains, and phone stands. Some buyers tried store exchanges but found the same defect, while others took the pen apart and applied film themselves to protect the patterns. The episode keeps attention on quality control in co-branded goods rather than on the drinks themselves.

Luckin Coffee has teamed up with the classic animated IP Tom and Jerry for the third time, launching a New Zealand Cheese Latte and a series of limited-edition merchandise, among which the face-changing pen quickly won the hearts of a large number of consumers with its fun design of changing faces with a press. However, many buyers found in actual use that after pressing this face-changing pen several times, the printed patterns of the characters' faces inside the pen barrel window began to peel, become mottled, or even disappear, and quality control issues surfaced as a result. Consumers' complaint posts with photos gradually appeared on social platforms; some tried to exchange the product at stores but found the problem persisted, while others took apart the pen and applied film themselves in an attempt to extend the life of the patterns. This article will sort out the complete process of this face-changing pen from going viral to flopping, present consumer feedback and coping methods, and focus on the quality control controversy surrounding Luckin's co-branded merchandise.

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Luckin Coffee recently launched its third co-branding collaboration with the animated IP "Tom and Jerry," releasing a New Zealand Cheese Latte and multiple limited-edition merchandise items.

According to the official promotional Weibo post, this campaign includes the "co-branded three-piece set" of paper bags, cup sleeves, and stickers, as well as merchandise such as the face-changing pen, plush blanket, and insulated tumbler. Consumers can obtain the corresponding gifts by purchasing designated sets or coupon packages.

Among the many merchandise items, the face-changing pen included with the limited-edition set especially attracted the interest of many adult consumers. Luckin's previously released co-branded merchandise was mostly conventional categories such as fridge magnets, keychains, and phone stands, which had already lost novelty for longtime users. Therefore, this ballpoint pen that can "change faces with one press"—previously seen mostly in boutique stationery stores—made fans feel especially intrigued after appearing as new Luckin merchandise, and they rushed to place orders.

According to images and texts posted by netizens, this limited-edition face-changing pen has a small window at the top. Each time the pen cap is pressed, the parts inside the pen barrel rotate, and the character patterns printed on the surface switch accordingly, making for a rather clever design. After getting the face-changing pen, many people could not resist repeatedly pressing the pen cap, watching Tom in the window turn into Jerry and then switch back again.

However, after playing with it for a while, some netizens noticed that as the number of presses increased, the faces of the animated characters in the small window began to show varying degrees of wear, and the printed patterns gradually became mottled or even tended to disappear, giving people such a fright that they quickly stopped.

There are quite a few consumers who encountered similar problems. Some reported that when they received the face-changing pen, they already found that the patterns printed on the parts were not clear enough; after pressing, the parts rubbed against each other, which may be exactly why those cute faces were scratched.

Some consumers found that the face-changing pen in their hands became "unrecognizable" after only a few plays, and immediately went to a nearby store to request an exchange. But the replacement pen also "lost its face as it changed faces" after being pressed. After several exchanges, the customer helplessly accepted reality and lamented that the joy brought by this merchandise was like a fleeting glimpse of something beautiful.

The "victims" of the face-changing pen have successively posted photos and posts on social platforms, using their personal experiences to remind like-minded people who want to buy it to order cautiously. In the comments, there was no shortage of negative feedback such as "Bought it today for 40, so disappointed when I received it," "It's really not that good," and "The least worthwhile merchandise." Netizens who saw these posts felt glad that they had not blindly followed the trend, while also lamenting that Luckin's quality control on this merchandise was unexpectedly poor, no wonder it sparked dissatisfaction among many fans.

Netizens who had already bought it chose to directly take apart the face-changing pen, remove the parts printed with patterns, and carefully apply a layer of transparent tape or plastic wrap to protect those cute faces that were extremely prone to wear. After personally testing that this protective measure did not affect the normal use of the ballpoint pen, this ingenious user shared her clever idea online, hoping that other people deeply troubled by the same issue could also use the same method to protect their new toy and make the joy brought by the face-changing pen last a little longer.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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