What Does Handling Coffee Materials Mean After an Endorsement Ends?
A Cotti Coffee employee filmed himself cutting up a life-size standee of former brand ambassador Wang Yibo, targeting the head, and posted the clip with a caption. The video drew widespread criticism, and on February 28 Cotti issued a public apology, ended cooperation with the store, closed it, and pledged stronger training and oversight of material recycling. The case has renewed attention to handling coffee materials and artists' portrait rights.
After an endorsement deal expires, brands normally clear ambassador images online and remove posters, outdoor ads, and packaging offline within a set period. Wang Yibo joined Cotti in 2024, when some franchisees reported month-on-month sales growth of 80% to 350%, and was named global brand ambassador in 2025. The coffee store involved is now closed.
Recently, a video of a Cotti Coffee employee destroying a life-size standee of former brand ambassador Wang Yibo sparked a huge uproar on social media. In the video, the store clerk deliberately cut up the standee's head and posted it with a caption, provoking widespread dissatisfaction and boycott among fans. As the incident continued to escalate, Cotti issued a public statement on February 28 apologizing, announcing the termination of cooperation with the store involved and its closure, while promising to strengthen training and oversight of the material recycling process. This controversy has brought the issue of material handling standards after the termination of brand endorsement contracts to the forefront, and once again drawn industry attention to the protection of artists' portrait rights.
Recently, a short video showing a Cotti Coffee employee disposing of endorsement materials appeared on social media, quickly attracting a large number of netizens' attention.
Judging from the circulated screenshots, when the employee was cutting up the life-size standee of brand ambassador Wang Yibo, they specifically targeted the head area, recorded the entire destruction process, and attached captions like "Wang Yibo standee being 'disassembled'". The video drew many onlookers shortly after being uploaded, while also angering many fans. (Note: The original video has now been deleted and taken down.)
It is reported that in 2024, Cotti officially announced Wang Yibo as its brand ambassador, and after the two joined forces, store performance in multiple regions saw significant increases. Some franchisees revealed that after the celebrity collaboration was announced, store sales grew by 80% to 350% month-on-month. In 2025, Cotti once again announced that Wang Yibo had been upgraded to global brand ambassador, which was also the chain brand's first major brand move after reaching a scale of ten thousand stores.
Now, the endorsement cooperation between Cotti and Wang Yibo has expired. According to common industry practice and contract terms, after an endorsement relationship ends, the brand needs to carry out a systematic cleanup of related materials both online and offline. On the online side, ambassador images, videos, and promotional content on channels such as e-commerce platform ads and the brand's official website must be taken down; on the offline side, physical materials such as store posters, outdoor advertisements, and product packaging must be replaced, removed, or sealed within the agreed time limit.
In addition, promotional items and merchandise that have not yet been used must also be destroyed or removed to prevent them from entering the second-hand market and causing infringement disputes. Therefore, from a procedural perspective, after the cooperation between the two parties ended, Cotti store employees disposing of expired materials in accordance with regulations was itself a normal performance of duties.
However, many fans expressed strong dissatisfaction with this. They believe that in the process of destroying the materials, the store staff deliberately filmed footage of cutting the former ambassador's portrait, which was neither professional nor showed basic respect for a former partner. Some relevant observers also analyzed that unauthorized defacing or damaging of another person's portrait may constitute infringement, and publicly disseminating the video in question is even more likely to touch upon the individual's right to reputation.
After the incident came to light, many fans expressed extreme anger over the video content and demanded that Cotti formally apologize to the former ambassador for the employee's inappropriate behavior. At the same time, a large number of fan users posted expressing anger and disappointment over the way store clerks handled expired materials, claiming they had canceled their Cotti membership cards and announced a permanent stop to spending, spontaneously launching a boycott against the brand, and emphasizing that they "bought because of the ambassador and left because of the brand's values."
On February 28, Cotti issued a public statement through various social platforms, saying that the company's cooperation with Wang Yibo had concluded successfully, and that regarding the improper behavior of an individual store in handling materials after the cooperation expired, it sincerely apologized to Wang Yibo, fans, and the general public.
At the same time, the official statement said that after the incident, response measures were taken immediately, including terminating cooperation with the store involved and closing it down, and promised the public that in the future it would strengthen store training, further improve the material recycling process, and upgrade inspection and oversight mechanisms to resolutely prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Image source: Internet
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
