Recently, some netizens complained that Gu Ming's employees wore cards on their heads and wore paper trays that looked like handcuffs to shoot videos, and some netizens alleged that the store did not respect employees, which immediately caused controversy.
September 18, #古茗#等话题冲上微博热搜. On social platforms, more than one Gu Ming store account has posted similar videos. In the afternoon of the same day, the official Weibo of Gu Ming Tea Drink apologized and said that the video involved caused misunderstanding and discomfort to some netizens, and after receiving feedback from netizens, the official took down the video as soon as possible, and said that it would be more cautious in future promotion planning to avoid misunderstandings.
The video shows that Gu Ming's employees were tied up and hung with an apology card, and the video of the controversy involved has been deleted
On September 17, the reporter inquired about the account and found that the video had been taken down, and the reporter had privately messaged the account, but did not receive a response as of press time.
According to the content of the video, many Gu Ming employees have cards hanging around their necks, which are written with "the crime of forgetting to put the straw", "the crime of missing the expiration date", "the crime of overturning the tea barrel", etc., and at the same time, they are also wearing milk tea cup paper holders on their hands, which resemble handcuffs, and the text of the video is "To show the abstinence, next time... There is no next time".
In addition, a video clip circulated on the Internet also showed that the card on the chest of one of Gu Ming's employees read, "I am guilty, not putting straws, not putting nuts, not putting lids". In the video, the employee reads out the content in a joking tone. However, for the marketing of this kind of video, some netizens feel that the store does not respect employees.
In addition to the "Gu Ming|Guangdong" account, on September 16, on the Douyin platform, Gu Ming (Anji Gaoyu Road Store) posted a similar video, in which Gu Ming's employees also wore sin cards on their heads and paper trays shaped like handcuffs. After "Gu Ming|Guangdong" deleted the relevant video, the video was not deleted. By around 2 p.m. on September 18, after Gu Ming issued a statement, the video was already "in a non-public state".
Gu Ming: The video was removed from the shelves as soon as possible, and I will be more cautious in the promotion planning in the future
On the afternoon of September 18, Gu Ming Tea's official Weibo issued an apology statement, saying: Recently, the account of Gu Ming Guangdong Branch posted a "playing meme" video on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, which brought misunderstanding to some netizens. Gu Ming said that the video drew on the creativity of the hot meme "Licking the Dog" + "Double Cup Holder Handcuffs" on the Douyin platform, combined with the work scene of the store, and was played and filmed by branch employees and store employees.
"We thought it was a funny 'joke', which brought misunderstanding and discomfort to some netizens. After receiving feedback from netizens, we removed the video as soon as possible. Gu Ming said that he sincerely apologized here, and at the same time took it as a warning, and would be more cautious in the future promotion planning to avoid misunderstandings.
Screenshot of Gu Ming's Weibo
Lawyer: Enterprises should not maliciously market the word "crime" to attract attention
Lawyer Kong Yunfei, executive director of Shanghai Landing (Guangzhou) Law Firm, said that from the perspective of publicity and promotion, Article 9 of the Advertising Law clearly stipulates that advertisements shall not obstruct social public order or violate good social customs, and shall not hinder social stability or harm the public interest. From the perspective of employee management, according to the provisions of the Labor Law and the Labor Contract Law, employers are not allowed to inflict insults, corporal punishments, beatings, illegal searches and detention on employees. Kong Yunfei pointed out that although Gu Ming's announcement afterwards said that it was a joke, from the perspective of historical and cultural background, wearing a high hat and parading on the street with a badge are one of the means of criticism, and from the perspective of ordinary people, it will inevitably make the public understand that Gu Ming is insulting employees.
Song Ruliang, director of the Guangdong Research Center for the Rule of Law, believes that the company's approach is very inappropriate, first, the enterprise does not regard the employee's right to reputation and portrait as a legitimate right, and second, the word "crime" has a specific meaning, because the crime can only be determined after a set of legal identification procedures, and cannot be said casually. Song Ruliang said that the indiscriminate definition of crimes is misleading to many people, and companies should not maliciously market in order to attract attention to attract traffic. If the interests of employees are violated, the labor administrative department, including employees, can demand compensation from the enterprise through legal weapons to defend the dignity of the employees.
Related: Submitted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year
The current prospectus is invalid
Gu Ming is a well-known domestic freshly made tea brand. On January 2 this year, Gu Ming and Mixue Bingcheng both submitted prospectuses to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to the prospectus, according to data from CIC Consulting, in terms of the number of stores and GMV, Gu Ming has become the second largest freshly made tea brand in China in 2023 under the full price band.
The founder of Gu Ming is Wang Yunan, who opened the first Gu Ming milk tea store in Wenling, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province in 2010. According to the data of Narrow Door Restaurant, as of September 10 this year, Gu Ming had a total of 9,543 stores.
According to the prospectus, in 2021, 2022 and the first nine months of 2023, Gu Ming's revenue will be 4.384 billion yuan, 5.559 billion yuan and 5.571 billion yuan respectively, and the net profit will be 23.992 million yuan, 372 million yuan and 1.002 billion yuan respectively. During the same period, Gu Ming's adjusted profit (non-IFRS measure) was approximately 770 million yuan, 788 million yuan and 1.045 billion yuan, respectively.
On July 3 this year, the prospectus of Guming expired, and no new prospectus has been submitted.
Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, N Video
Edit: Ziyan