The competition of Chinese brands makes the German car manufacturers to create. After years of dominance, competitors like BYD are in China already passed and are also preparing to take off internationally. A critical phase for the German car industry. Shitstorms come at the wrong time – but one just broke over bmw in.
Their daughter Mini distributed at her stand at the Auto Shanghai
, the most important car show in a long time, free ice cream. Mini had 300 portions each in the cool box for April 19th and 20th. With the crowd, not every visitor gets a chance. The problem for Mini: The accusation spread rapidly on the social network Weibo that Mini would rather distribute the ice cream to foreigners than to the Chinese.
Only one topic got more coverage on Weibo than “BMW Mini” on Thursday. 93 million users got there alone from the supposed ice cream scandal.
The allegations should be substantiated by a video showing the mini stand. Two young Chinese women are standing there and reject several compatriots who are apparently asking for an ice cream. After a cut, a man can be seen at the stand who obviously does not come from Asia. He gets an ice cream from the staff. It is not possible to determine whether the man was at the stand earlier, later or almost at the same time as the rejected visitors.
But the damage to BMW and Mini was already done. The group responded with a statement Weibo
. They want to apologize to their “old and new friends” for the “incident” and “the negative experiences and emotions” that it triggered.
The temperatures at car shows are “usually quite high” and the intention was to provide “early summer cooling” with the ice at the stand. In addition to the 300 servings per day, Mini “set aside a small amount for our very hard-working colleagues on site”. This also includes the “4-5 foreigners” who can be seen in the video. Mini then asked for “more tolerance and space” for the two employees at the stand, who were “very young” and “just joined the company”.
Mini didn’t do any better with the statement. One of the most liked comments below recommended that the automaker hire a new PR team. Other users reacted even more sharply and accused Mini of racism. At BMW, one will hope that the shit storm will not grow any further.
Some brands have also been hit economically hard by similar cases in China in the past. In 2019, for example, Dolce & Gabbana products were downright boycotted after some celebrities criticized a commercial as racist. The sales figures collapsed, the Italian luxury brand apologized and spoke of a “cultural misunderstanding”.