Goldenberry's chocolate ad ran a sexual pun, then blamed the platform's layout tool for it

In January 2026 a Xiaohongshu promotion for Goldenberry's tinned bear-shaped chocolates carried headline copy widely read as a sexual double entendre, riding a pun on the product's name. Screenshots circulated fast, with commenters calling it a cheap play for engagement rather than an accident of wording.

Goldenberry's first apology said the offending large-text headline had not been written by the brand but generated by an 'auto-optimise' feature in the ad platform it used, which splits and recombines a post's images and titles automatically when boosting reach. The explanation was met with open disbelief — commenters said the brand was 'treating AI as if it can't talk back' to dodge responsibility for copy that ran under its own account.

Rather than drop the explanation, Goldenberry's second statement held the same line more firmly: the disputed image had been auto-generated and auto-displayed by the platform's system, and the brand publicly asked the platform to confirm this on its behalf. Commentary, including a piece from People's Daily's opinion desk, argued the brand should have owned the lapse rather than spent two statements assigning it to software; Goldenberry said it had paused the campaign and would build a review process covering every stage of a placement before it goes live.