Clarins named Jin Chen its makeup ambassador the day before her hit-and-run exploded

On 16 March 2025, actress Jin Chen (金晨) was reported to have been involved in a single-vehicle accident in a Mercedes G-Class and to have left the scene, with her assistant allegedly posing as the driver. The story stayed buried for ten months — it surfaced when the insurer reviewing the expensive claim checked surveillance footage. Paparazzi previewed the exposé on 28 January 2026 and published scene photos the next day; traffic police confirmed the accident determination document was authentic and said a review had been opened into who was really at the wheel.

The timing could not have been worse for one brand: Clarins had announced Jin Chen as its makeup ambassador on 28 January, the same day the preview ran. Within a day the brand deleted her livestream promotion and the livestream itself was shelved. On 30 January, jelly maker Strong (喜之郎) removed all of her content from its official Weibo — six campaign posts and even a 15th-debut-anniversary congratulation it had published on 15 January. Lotus Cars, whose ambassador she also was, faced comment sections full of questions about a sports-car face tied to a traffic accident.

By early February, reports counted eleven endorsement contracts terminated, Louis Vuitton among them, with substantial breach-of-contract claims expected. Clarins had paid for an ambassador announcement and got a one-day campaign it then had to erase — the deal's entire value destroyed between the announcement and the deletion.