Kylian Mbappe, one of the most well-known names in world football, lost his biggest commercial partnerships in the Chinese market in one day because of a short video that went viral.
After images of Real Madrid's French striker allegedly joking about Mao Zedong, the founding leader of the People's Republic of China, spread on social media, the country's two giant companies unilaterally terminated their sponsorship agreements with the football player.
In the video that appeared on the internet, the 27-year-old football player says that the funniest internet meme he has ever seen is an image in which his face is mounted on "a man he thinks is a Chinese dictator".
It is stated that this statement in the recording refers to the visual in which Mbappe's face is placed on the image of Mao Zedong, who died in 1976 and for whom humor in his memory is considered a strict social taboo in China.
Following the images, Dongpeng, one of China's largest beverage manufacturers, announced in an official statement that it had immediately terminated all cooperation with Mbappe.
According to the news of the French AFP agency, the company emphasized that it follows a "zero tolerance policy that does not tolerate any behavior that hurts national feelings."
Dongpeng heavily used AI-generated images of Mbappe in energy drink advertisements during this year's World Cup.
Immediately afterwards, Mengniu, the country's largest dairy products producer, announced that it had terminated the contract with a similar statement.
Just like the beverage giant, Mengniu cited the principle of "zero tolerance for words and actions that harm the feelings of the Chinese people".
Mbappe, who is affectionately nicknamed "Guigui", meaning "Turtle" among Chinese football fans because of the Ninja Turtles analogy, and has millions of fans on social media, quickly turned from one of the most popular foreign athletes in the country into a target.
The title "Dongpeng Beverage ended its cooperation with Mbappe" became the most talked about topic on China's microblogging platform Weibo.
Users stated that the football player crossed the red line and demanded that his face on the drink cans be removed immediately.
Dongqiudi, one of the country's leading football platforms, wrote in his statement that Mbappe's statements were a direct insult to the Chinese people and fans.
The crisis in question broke out just a day after Mbappe was overtaken by Harry Kane in the Ballon d'Or race, which is considered the most prestigious individual award in the football world.
Mbappe previously mentioned the montages that compared him to military dictators in an interview he gave to the French sports newspaper L'Equipe in September.
In that interview, the star football player said, "One side of it is funny, you can understand that people do it for fun. But the other side is not that funny, because there is great suffering caused by these people in history. It is not nice to be compared to people who killed others or dragged millions of people into misery; I have never done such a thing in my life."
This is not the first time Western sports figures have touched on political or historical sensitivities in the Chinese market, leading to a commercial crisis. The Beijing administration has previously imposed harsh trade sanctions against athletes and institutions that cross the official line on issues such as Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong.
Former NBA player Dwight Howard caused great anger in China when he referred to Taiwan as a "country" in a video he shot with the island's vice president and current leader Lai Ching-te in 2023.
In 2019, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey's post supporting the Hong Kong protests caused China to suspend all corporate sponsorships with the NBA and remove match broadcasts from television screens for a full year.
