Why Does the Luckin Coffee Cup Show a Three-Eyed Tom?

Luckin Coffee released its annual October Tom and Jerry collaboration with two new drinks, Milk Skin Latte and Raw Coconut Mango Pomelo Sago, plus limited merchandise and themed cups nationwide. Customers noticed the Tom and Jerry printed on the pink PP cup had three eyes, prompting debate over a printing error, an AI design mistake, or a deliberate artistic choice.

Some fans matched animation screenshots showing exaggerated expressions, supporting the intentional design reading. Similar three-eyed work appeared in a Soap Studio collaboration with artist Greg Mike and in Uniqlo collaboration T-shirts. The discussion reflects an ongoing tension in coffee culture around artistic expression and public perception of familiar characters in IP collaborations.

Luckin Coffee's annual October collaboration with Tom and Jerry has become a regular fixture, and this year is no exception. Two new drinks, "Milk Skin Latte" and "Raw Coconut Mango Pomelo Sago," launched together with limited-edition merchandise, and stores nationwide switched to Tom and Jerry themed packaging. However, some customers noticed upon receiving the actual product that the Tom and Jerry printed on the cups actually had three eyes. This unusual design quickly sparked discussion: was it a printing error, or was it intentional? Some fans dug up animation screenshots to prove it was a faithful recreation of exaggerated expressions, while others suspected it was an AI design mistake. More importantly, this wasn't the first time a three-eyed design had appeared—Soap Studio's collaboration with artist Greg Mike and Uniqlo's collaboration T-shirts had both used similar designs. This debate over the cups reflects the subtle tension between artistic expression and public perception in IP collaboration designs.

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In recent years, every October Luckin has announced collaborations with the popular IP Tom and Jerry, each time attracting a large fan following. This year continues the same pattern, and before October arrives, Luckin has once again brought Tom and Jerry themed collaborations back into the public eye.

According to the official promotional materials, this collaboration includes two new drinks, "Milk Skin Latte" and "Raw Coconut Mango Pomelo Sago," along with a variety of themed merchandise. Stores nationwide have also switched to limited-edition cups and packaging featuring Tom and Jerry. The new flavors plus the rich selection of merchandise quickly ignited consumer enthusiasm, especially among collectors who immediately placed orders as soon as the campaign launched, striving to complete the full set of merchandise in the shortest time possible.

However, one customer noticed something off about the design on the cup after receiving the Luckin collaboration cup. From photos taken by netizens, the Tom and Jerry printed on the pink PP cup both had three eyes on their faces.

Everyone knows that Tom and Jerry are originally cartoon characters with only two eyes each. Suddenly having three eyes completely breaks people's established perception of these two classic characters. Many people, upon seeing their familiar characters turned into this, expressed their first impressions—some bluntly said "How is this so eerie," while others said "It's really quite bizarre," admitting it was hard to accept this Tom that looked "a bit scary."

Interestingly, opinions in the comments section were divided on whether the three-eyed Tom was a printing error by the brand. Some loyal fans found original screenshots from the animation and believed that Luckin's use of the three-eyed Tom design was likely intended to borrow the exaggerated expression techniques from the animation to suggest how delicious the drink was. They didn't think it was a mistake made by staff when designing the cup's appearance.

But many netizens disagreed. They pointed out that although Tom does undergo very exaggerated transformations when expressing shock in the animation, in the vast majority of cases both eyeballs pop out together, rather than an extra eye appearing out of nowhere on his face. Therefore, they didn't buy the loyal fans' explanation. Some further speculated that the puzzling design on the cup might be due to the designers using AI or similar design tools.

Regarding the above speculation, netizens who disagreed believed that when Luckin collaborates with popular IPs, the design assets used should have been reviewed by the copyright holders. They stated bluntly that if the three-eyed Tom were truly an error in the drawing process, the collaborator would never have agreed to Luckin printing such an absurd design on widely distributed takeaway cups.

Additionally, some users dug up multiple product images, pointing out that three-eyed Tom and Jerry had actually appeared before. According to netizens, in 2018 Soap Studio collaborated with internationally renowned artist Greg Mike, and one of the themed merchandise items released at that time featured Tom and Jerry with three eyes. Furthermore, when Uniqlo collaborated with Tom and Jerry, they also printed three-eyed Tom on short-sleeved T-shirts.

Combining these past cases, more fans tend to believe that the appearance design of Luckin's collaboration cups this time was "intentional." However, for passersby who are not very familiar with the animation, seeing the three-eyed Tom for the first time might, beyond being surprised, also involuntarily find it a bit strange.

Image source: Internet

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