Bulgari, the LVMH Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned jewelry label, has come under fire for listing Taiwan separately from China on its official website.
Chinese netizens, many of whom are avid gamers that took note of the brand for its Honor of Kings collaboration that launched on Monday, quickly called for a boycott of Bulgari‘s collaboration online.
In a statement shared with WWD, Bulgari apologized for the blunder and reinstated its “One China” stance.
“Bulgari respects China‘s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as always, with unwavering commitment,” the company said in the statement.
“We deeply regret the occurrence of technical errors in the store addresses and map markings on our official websites due to oversight in management. Upon discovering these technical issues today [Tuesday], immediate corrections have been made. We sincerely apologize for the mistakes. We express our sincere gratitude for the vigilance of netizens and are currently working with third-party international service providers to ensure accurate representation of countries and regions on our official websites,” the statement continued.
Bulgari also issued a timely apology on Weibo, which quickly topped the Weibo trending chart by Tuesday evening, receiving more than 300 million clicks at the time of publishing.
Following the apology, People’s Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece, shared a post on Weibo that said the apology was insincere and pressured Bulgari to issue a global apology. The post received 100,000-plus likes and also began trending on Weibo, receiving more than 140 million clicks within an hour.
The fallout came a day after Bulgari revealed a digital collaboration with Honor of Kings, one of China’s biggest video games. Bulgari designed in-game digital jewelry skin for Mi Yue, a character in the game. It is the company’s first in-game digital collaboration.
The brand picked the B.zero1 line as its main source of inspiration, transforming the spiral ring into a tiara, bracelets, a corset belt, hunting boots and a floating cape for the digital heroine.
“To me, Mi Yue embodies the Bulgari woman to a great extent, given her possession of some fundamental qualities, such as passion, determination and the courage to do many things in life,” said Lucia Silvestri, Bulgari jewelry creative director. The company said the digital jewelry skin would be “launching soon.”
To fete the collaboration, Bulgari hosted a launch event on Monday at Shanghai’s Bulgari Hotel, where Chinese actress Gulnazar cosplayed Mi Yue. Star gamers and influencers also took the stage for a round of performance competition.
Adding fuel to the fire, Chinese netizens are urging Bulgari ambassadors, including Shu Qi, Liu Yifei, Liu Wen, Yang Yang, Wu Lei, Tong Liya, Fan Chengcheng, Wen Qi and Zhao Lusi, to cut ties with the brand.
Neither Honor of Kings nor its parent company, Tencent, has yet issued a response to the incident. But in 2021, Tencent called off a partnership with Burberry after the brand faced backlash over the Xinjiang Cotton controversy.
— With contributions from Tianwei Zhang and Luisa Zargani
