Coffee Ole or Coffe Ole? Ningji Co-Branding Apology Explained
Lemon tea brand Ningji announced a collaboration with the anime Detective Conan, then faced backlash over in-store posters pairing Conan with Ai Haibara alongside Shinichi Kudo with Ran Mouri. The brand issued an apology, blaming individual franchisees, but fans and industry observers rejected that explanation and pointed to a failure in material review.
It was Ningji's second public apology this year over marketing material control. The case has become a talking point for coffee and tea sellers weighing how far co-branding can go before it offends the source material's audience. The same care with wording applies to everyday menus, where a misspelling such as coffee ole or coffe ole can still reach customers and shape how a brand is judged.
Hand-crafted lemon tea brand Ningji recently officially announced a collaboration with the Japanese anime "Detective Conan," but found itself mired in controversy over CP-themed posters displayed in its stores. The posters placed Conan and Ai Haibara alongside Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri, sparking strong dissatisfaction among fans of the original work. Although Ningji quickly issued an apology statement, attributing the incident to unauthorized actions by individual franchisees, netizens and industry insiders generally rejected this explanation, believing the brand had clearly failed in material review and respect for the IP. Notably, this was already Ningji's second public apology this year over marketing material control issues. For coffee and tea beverage enthusiasts, how co-branding marketing can strike a balance between respecting the original work and consumers has once again become an industry topic worth watching.
Recently, hand-crafted lemon tea brand Ningji encountered a marketing crisis when it officially announced a co-branding partnership with the Japanese anime IP "Detective Conan," as inappropriate posters displayed in some stores triggered widespread controversy.
According to complaints from netizens on social media, a Ningji store hung a poster with the words "Who is your ultimate canon CP?" featuring two pairings side by side: Conan (Shinichi Kudo) with Ai Haibara, and Shinichi Kudo with Ran Mouri. Many netizens pointed out that Conan and Ai Haibara are not romantic partners in the original work, and criticized the brand for lacking respect for the source material.
Some fans of the original work protested, saying the store deliberately stirred up shipping wars to chase traffic, splitting the male lead and maliciously pairing him with a female supporting character. Such marketing tactics show disrespect for the original work and hurt fans' feelings.
Fans argued that the pairing of Conan and Ai Haibara had previously been officially criticized, yet the Ningji store deliberately created opposition between canon and fan pairings in pursuit of traffic, demonstrating that the brand lacks a proper sense of bottom line.
Other netizens stated bluntly that since Ningji wants to enter the ACG market, respecting the characters and consumers is a basic prerequisite. They hoped the store would respect the original work, respect consumers, respect fans of the source material, and even respect the male and female leads when promoting the collaboration, and would rectify the situation and remove inappropriate promotional posters as soon as possible.
In response, on October 9, Ningji issued an apology statement, saying the incident was a violation by an individual franchisee and completely contrary to the brand's original intentions and requirements. Upon discovering the problematic imagery, Ningji immediately ordered the store involved to remove the violating content and imposed serious penalties on the franchisee concerned.
Ningji stated that it was fully aware that this incident had caused a negative impact on the copyright holder and fans of "Detective Conan," and extended its most sincere apologies to everyone. It also promised to further strengthen internal supervision in future operations to ensure similar incidents do not happen again.
However, netizens were not buying Ningji's apology statement. An industry insider familiar with the process of importing Japanese IPs said that based on his understanding of how rigorous the Japanese IP holders he has worked with are, this promotional material was clearly not reviewed by the Japanese IP holder—had the Japanese side taken even one look, content inconsistent with the IP's setting would never have been allowed to go out.
Others analyzed that no franchisee would proactively design hoarding for a co-branding poster—this was clearly the brand's own doing. Yet Ningji shifted the blame to franchisees after the incident, offering such a full-of-holes explanation that it was truly hard to believe.
It is worth noting that this was not the first time Ningji had a marketing misstep. In June this year, when promoting its "Ningbao Festival" project, the brand also faced questions over lax control of promotional materials.
At the time, the brand had not partnered with a certain celebrity yet used that person's name in its promotion, leading netizens to view it as testing the boundaries. At that time, Ningji likewise issued an apology statement, saying it immediately launched an internal self-inspection and withdrew the relevant promotional materials at once, while offering sincere apologies to the celebrity and all affected netizens and consumers.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
