Influencer Indiscretion or Influencer Intention?
Social media influencers, despite the jokes and SNL skits, are gods to the retail world, and the phenomena is not just in the US but global, and even the slightest perturbation in the daily activities of influencers can cause ripples across products and light up social media sites across the globe. Perhaps it does indicate an unwillingness of the younger generation to think on their own, but whatever the reason, influencers have influence and retailers pay them well for just a few positive words or a nod toward a new product. Even more focused are live streaming events where influencers can generate millions in revenue by explaining what is hip and what is not, as is the case with Austin Li Jiaqi, aka the “Lipstick King”, and influencer in China who has over 64 million followers and was in the middle of a broadcast on Taobao Live, when he brought out a plate of Viennetta ice cream with Oreos and chocolate, which some say looked like a military tank.
Suddenly the broadcast went blank and his fans were left wondering what had happened, especially since the broadcast was during the big 6/18 shopping holiday. While Austin noted in a post that there had been some technical issues as the reason for the broadcast shutdown, he did not appear for hjis next show two days later and has not been seen or heard from since the broadcast shutdown. The speculation is that whether intentional or not, the cake looked like a tank to government censors, which could be assumed to be a reference to the 1989 Tiedemann Square massacre where government troops killed a number of students and civilians, with a famous picture of a protester standing in front of a tank, the symbol of the carnage.
So far there has been no indication as to Mr. Li Jiaqi’s whereabouts and holiday retailers that were part of his broadcast venue are scrambling to fill the gap and salvage sales, but the incident has also had another effect, and that is of educating a generation of young Chinese citizens who had never seen or heard of the Tiananmen Square incident. As no mention or reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre is allowed there is a generation that had no reference point to understand what the tank cake might have been alluding to, but many seemed to have decided to look it up, likely using VPNs that can bypass Chinese internet restrictions, and now have an understanding of what Tiananmen Square represented. While we have no idea if Austin Li Jiaqi’s intention was to subtly remind a country of how repressive the government has been in the past or just to hype an ice cream product, it is an odd confluence of events that seems to have had an effect different from what the government intended. Given the lucrative financial compensation given to influencers we expect the actions of Mr. Li Jiaqi were likely unintentional, and he will eventually return after considerable interrogation, but the power of influencers has been reinforced, albeit not as intended by the censors.
Suddenly the broadcast went blank and his fans were left wondering what had happened, especially since the broadcast was during the big 6/18 shopping holiday. While Austin noted in a post that there had been some technical issues as the reason for the broadcast shutdown, he did not appear for hjis next show two days later and has not been seen or heard from since the broadcast shutdown. The speculation is that whether intentional or not, the cake looked like a tank to government censors, which could be assumed to be a reference to the 1989 Tiedemann Square massacre where government troops killed a number of students and civilians, with a famous picture of a protester standing in front of a tank, the symbol of the carnage.
So far there has been no indication as to Mr. Li Jiaqi’s whereabouts and holiday retailers that were part of his broadcast venue are scrambling to fill the gap and salvage sales, but the incident has also had another effect, and that is of educating a generation of young Chinese citizens who had never seen or heard of the Tiananmen Square incident. As no mention or reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre is allowed there is a generation that had no reference point to understand what the tank cake might have been alluding to, but many seemed to have decided to look it up, likely using VPNs that can bypass Chinese internet restrictions, and now have an understanding of what Tiananmen Square represented. While we have no idea if Austin Li Jiaqi’s intention was to subtly remind a country of how repressive the government has been in the past or just to hype an ice cream product, it is an odd confluence of events that seems to have had an effect different from what the government intended. Given the lucrative financial compensation given to influencers we expect the actions of Mr. Li Jiaqi were likely unintentional, and he will eventually return after considerable interrogation, but the power of influencers has been reinforced, albeit not as intended by the censors.
Austin Li Jiaqi aka the "Lipstick King" - Source: Weibo, SCMP
Tianaman Square Massacre Photo - Source: US Embassy
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