Kris Wu for Louis Vuitton and Bulgari, Zheng Shuang for Prada – in China, when scandal engulfs your brand ambassador you need a new strategy

Fendi China spokeswoman Zhao Wei has been scrubbed from the Chinese internet, while police have charged Bulgari and Louis Vuitton ambassador Kris Wu with rape

These and other luxury brands that made big bets on Chinese celebrities need a new playbook, an expert says. Rule No 1? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

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Korean pop superstars BTS model looks from Louis Vuitton’s men’s autumn/winter 2021 collection. BTS fan groups were wiped from the Chinese internet this year, underscoring the risks of companies using celebrities to promote their wares in China. Photo: CWH

Published: 7:15am, 8 Sep 2021Updated: 2:53pm, 13 Sep 2021

Rewind to the start of 2021, and pop star Kris Wu had become Bulgari’s most important brand ambassador in China, Louis Vuitton was making headlines for signing South Korean boy band BTS as global brand ambassadors, and Chinese actress Zheng Shuang was busy shooting her first advertising campaign for Prada.

The three luxury brands were convinced that collaborating with such bankable stars was the best marketing move they could make.

And yet, by February, Prada had cut ties with Zheng when a scandal erupted regarding her alleged abandonment of two children born to surrogate mothers in the United States; in August the actress was fined 299 million yuan (US$46.1 million) by Chinese authorities for tax evasion.

In July, Wu was accused in interviews of date rape by a beauty influencer and immediately dropped by Bulgari and Louis Vuitton, another brand he worked with; in mid-August Wu was formally charged with rape by police in Beijing.

Actress Zheng Shuang attends a Prada event in Beijing in 2019. Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

In May, fan groups associated with BTS started vanishing on Weibo, China’s Twitter – and when the Friends TV sitcom reunion special was released in China in June, the group’s guest appearance on the episode was cut out. In a similar vein, Weibo also imposed a 60-day ban on a BTS fan account for illegally raising funds to finance initiatives such as birthday celebrations for members of the group.