The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
Blueglass sold 'boyfriend power' yogurt with deer penis — a 400,000 yuan fine
Blueglass marketed yogurt with maca, deer penis and ginseng using '18+ only' slogans implying virility. Beijing regulators fined it 400,000 yuan for vulgar ads.
Blueglass (蓝玻酸奶)
What happened
On May 7, 2024, Blueglass launched a 'Super Boy Boyfriend Power' yogurt at 55 Beijing stores. The product contained a 'little orange packet' with maca, deer penis, ginseng, cistanche and oyster powder — ingredients associated in Chinese folk culture with male virility. The ad copy read: 'I won't sell to anyone under 18 — don't pretend you don't understand,' with an '18+ restricted' icon.
Social media exploded. Netizens called it 'marketing madness,' mocking the brand for turning yogurt from a laxative into an aphrodisiac — a reference to an earlier Blueglass 'Chang' series that had caused diarrhoea. Customer service initially denied the ads were suggestive, telling customers to 'buy as needed.' Blueglass pulled the ads on May 9 after selling 5,779 cups.
In late October 2024, the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Regulation Bureau announced a 400,000 yuan fine. The penalty decision ruled the ads 'vulgar and borderline pornographic,' harmful to minors' physical and mental health, and in violation of public order. Eurofins testing confirmed the ingredient packet was classified only as sports nutrition food with no functional effects. Blueglass renamed the product 'Good Spirit Turns the Tables' and kept selling it.
Why it happened
- The product was yogurt; the marketing was innuendo: '18+ only' warnings and 'boyfriend power' branding turned a dairy product into a sex joke, and the regulator called it exactly that.
- The ingredient list was the real claim: deer penis and ginseng in a yogurt cup are not there for flavour — the implied function was the selling point, and Eurofins confirmed there was none.
- Blueglass had form: a 2021 fine for false anti-aging claims and a March 2024 'laxative' series meant this was the third ad-regulatory incident in three years.
- The rename was a workaround, not a correction: the same product with the same 'orange packet' stayed on sale under a sanitised name — the fine cost less than reformulating.
The lesson
Innuendo is a claim. The regulator read the ingredient list and the ad together — and the yogurt did neither thing it promised.
Sources
- 腾讯新闻 / 新京报 — 'Blueglass fined 400,000 yuan for vulgar ads; yogurt renamed and still selling', 2024-11-01
- 中国消费者报 — 'Blueglass fined 400,000 yuan for illegal advertising', 2024-11-01
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