Why white oil paper in a red envelope upset buyers

Heytea's Spring Festival two-cup set came with a limited-edition oil-removing paper tucked inside a red outer package shaped like a lucky money envelope. Consumers in Guangdong and Guangxi found the white paper inside ominous for the New Year, calling it Da Jili Shi, or great misfortune, and many said the design overlooked regional customs.

The merchandise was meant to echo the fat-burning slim bottle with lotus leaf tea launched for the holiday season, when brands lean on festive traffic to lift store sales. The backlash shows that color and packaging carry strong meaning around Lunar New Year, just as names like white coffee what is can confuse buyers who expect a clear description rather than a marketing label.

The Spring Festival is approaching, and major chain beverage brands are rolling out festive limited-edition merchandise to boost sales. Heytea recently launched a fat-burning slim bottle with lotus leaf tea, and a two-cup set that comes with a New Year limited-edition "oil-removing paper." However, this merchandise unexpectedly backfired — a red lucky money envelope outer package containing white oil-removing paper inside made many consumers in Guangdong and Guangxi uncomfortable, who saw it as a New Year taboo and exclaimed "Da Jili Shi" (great misfortune). While brands pursue creativity and festive atmosphere, should they consider regional customs and differences more? This article will walk you through the whole incident and various viewpoints.

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As the New Year approaches, major chain beverage brands are launching Spring Festival-themed products and merchandise one after another, hoping to use the holiday traffic to boost store performance. Heytea is no exception. Recently, it launched a fat-burning slim bottle with added lotus leaf tea, and simultaneously listed a two-cup set. Consumers who buy this set can receive the New Year limited-edition merchandise "oil-removing paper."

Whether they are loyal fans of Heytea's slim bottle series or consumers who ordered for the merchandise, they all placed orders to try it out after learning about the launch. But when everyone received the limited-edition merchandise included with their order, many immediately furrowed their brows.

From the real-life photos posted by netizens, this set's merchandise is a small packet of oil-removing paper, which happens to echo the name of the new fat-burning slim bottle. To match the New Year atmosphere, the outer packaging uses festive red, and it looks very much like a small lucky money envelope in hand, with a strong Spring Festival feel.

Unexpectedly, after opening the outer packaging, what was inside turned out to be white oil-removing paper. This scene immediately made consumers in Guangdong and Guangxi feel offended, and they bluntly said this merchandise was "unlucky."

Some Guangdong consumers said that receiving a big red lucky money envelope near the New Year was originally a happy thing, but upon opening it and seeing white oil paper resembling paper money, they couldn't help but blurt out "Da Jili Shi." Some complained, "I know it's oil-removing paper, but at first glance it looks like joss paper (note: paper money)," "I'd rather they stuff it with advertising paper," "I'd rather they just give an empty red envelope."

In the view of many netizens, Heytea comes from Jiangmen, Guangdong, so when it comes to New Year merchandise, it should more or less understand the taboos of users in Guangdong and Guangxi. Sending out such merchandise on the eve of the Spring Festival inevitably makes particular people feel uncomfortable.

They said that oil-removing paper on the market comes in many colors, and the brand could have chosen red to match the big red outer envelope, or chosen yellow, pink, or other oil-removing paper printed with patterns, so it would not arouse the disgust of netizens in Guangdong and Guangxi. Or the outer packaging could have used green similar to the new product to echo it, so no matter what color of oil-removing paper was placed inside, customers would not feel uncomfortable.

However, some users believe consumers in Guangdong and Guangxi do not need to make a big deal out of this. After all, it is just a pack of ordinary white oil-removing paper, and it just happens to be sealed in a red shell. There is no need to let your imagination run wild and associate it with unpleasant things to make yourself miserable.

However, as some people say, red outer shells paired with white paper might not have caused such a fierce reaction from netizens at other times; but at the sensitive time on the eve of the Spring Festival, it is very likely to trigger dissatisfaction among consumers in certain regions.

Therefore, in their view, when brands launch themed merchandise, they should respect the customs and habits of certain regions and avoid combinations that easily cause consumer misunderstanding and controversy.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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