Why did the Luckin Coffee panda plush campaign go wrong?

Luckin Coffee partnered with Chengdu Culture & Tourism on a panda-themed co-branded series, including ice cups, paper bags, cup sleeves, and plush keychains modeled on the giant panda Huahua. Once orders arrived, many buyers found the plush faces distorted and the expressions odd, and the red panda version drew similar complaints, prompting a wave of "ugly panda" posts online.

Huahua, known for her round, neckless build, was named Honorary Director of Chengdu Culture & Tourism last year, so demand for the keychain ran high from the start. The gap between promotional images and delivered items turned the launch into a public discussion about merchandise quality and fidelity, a recurring risk for licensed goods covered by specialty coffee media.

Luckin Coffee recently teamed up with Chengdu Culture & Tourism to launch a co-branded series, creating ice cups, paper bags, cup sleeves, and merchandise inspired by giant pandas, among which the plush keychain modeled after the top-tier panda "Huahua" was highly anticipated. However, after the campaign launched, many consumers found that the actual products they received were far from the promotional images—with skewed facial features and bizarre expressions, mockingly dubbed "undershot jaw," and the red panda version also suffered a quality control crisis, sparking a trend of sharing "ugly pandas" on social media. This collaboration, originally intended to win fans, unexpectedly turned into a discussion about merchandise quality and fidelity.

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Luckin Coffee officially announced yesterday a co-branding partnership with Chengdu Culture & Tourism, rolling out new materials centered on multiple animal images, covering ice cups of different designs, carry paper bags, cup sleeves, and a series of adorable merchandise. Among them, the plush doll keychain customized based on the Chengdu giant panda "Huahua" quickly attracted a large number of fans rushing to place orders thanks to its immense popularity.

As the "top-tier female star" of the panda world, Hehua (nicknamed "Huahua") has a body shape resembling a triangular rice ball due to her lack of a neck and waist, and has accumulated extremely high popularity nationwide and even overseas with her highly recognizable appearance. Deeply loved by netizens, Huahua was awarded the title of "Honorary Director of Chengdu Culture & Tourism" last year, so everyone now respectfully calls her "Director Hua."

(The triangular rice ball on the far left is Huahua)

When fans learned that "Director Hua" was going to collaborate with the coffee brand downstairs and that a plush doll keychain would also be released, true fans immediately opened social media, racing against time to search for ordering guides, hoping only to get their internet "beloved pet" as soon as possible.

They originally thought that after receiving the doll, they could post to show off and share some beautiful photos of "Director Hua," but never expected that the actual product handed over by the Luckin staff would look completely different—not only were the facial features distorted, but the entire panda face also had an attitude, making it hard to recognize as the "Huahua" they had cherished for so long. For a time, under the new product topic, it went from sharing beautiful photos to sharing "ugly pandas."

(Left is Luckin's seller's show, right is netizens' buyer's show)

According to feedback from the first batch of "victims," the biggest problem with Luckin's co-branded "Huahua" is concentrated in quality control, especially the multiple stitching lines on the facial features failing to align precisely—either the nose is skewed or the mouth is twisted—causing the panda's expression to change from originally cute and obedient to a "gorilla" look ready to pick a fight, and even the smiling lips in Luckin's promotional images turned into an increasingly awkward "undershot jaw."

Another more unfortunate group of "victims" just smiled without saying a word. Rather than complaining in words, they chose to directly post photos, letting onlooking netizens experience it for themselves. In their hands, the "Huahua" remembered as beautiful and dignified had its looks plummet after being made into a doll by Luckin. As more and more complaints surfaced, a trend of "abstract art style" also emerged under the topic, with the ugly-but-not-cute designs making many people exclaim, "I want a refund."

In addition to the top-tier "Huahua" whose image changed drastically due to rough workmanship, another red panda in Luckin's current collaboration did not escape either.

(Buyer's show vs. buyer's show)

Since the campaign launched yesterday, many netizens have been seizing every opportunity under Luckin's promotional posts to share the "sloppy dolls" they received. These red pandas had frizzy fur all over, distorted faces, and some even had incomplete facial features. As netizens put it: "Except for the back view, it's a dead angle from all 360 degrees."

Faced with this situation of goods not matching the description, many netizens also admitted that since they had already bought them and were just in it for fun, complaining more wouldn't change the situation. So, after venting their dissatisfaction, everyone began pondering how to modify the dolls in their hands to see if they could make them more pleasing to the eye. Eventually, one netizen discovered that there was no other way—only by turning these giant panda or red panda keychains upside down could they barely make them look "presentable."

Image source: Internet screenshots

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