Just before the 2025 Qingming Festival, NIO's sub-brand Ledao Auto (乐道汽车) released a brand poster whose core copy read 'swap battery at Qingming, leave anytime' (the original Chinese, '清明换电随时走', uses a breezy catchphrase to promote Ledao's 85 kWh battery swap service). Qingming is China's traditional tomb-sweeping and ancestor-worship festival. Using a flippant 'leave anytime' alongside Qingming was widely seen as a cultural offence.
This was Ledao's second ad controversy in three months — an earlier 'swapping boyfriends is not as good as swapping batteries' campaign (original Chinese: '换男友不如换电') had already drawn criticism. On April 4, NIO issued an internal notice confirming the ad was designed by a regional marketing specialist tied to the Qingming holiday break. Six people were disciplined: two pushed to resign, four managers warned or recorded demerits.
From April 8, the topic appeared on Weibo hot search, accumulating roughly 95 cumulative hours on the trending list. A brand built on the 'user enterprise' promise had failed on cultural sensitivity twice in a row — not because nobody knew what Qingming meant, but because nobody in the review process was paying attention.
NIO disciplined six — two resigned, four warned or demerited — after the ad trended 95 hours, showing the cost of a review process with no cultural checks.
Qingming's cultural meaning is solemn remembrance — the casual 'leave anytime' tone directly clashed with it. This was not creativity, it was a cultural blind spot.
A second ad controversy in three months showed the problem was not a single employee's mistake but a brand review process lacking cultural sensitivity checks.
A regional marketing specialist designed and released the poster independently, indicating a lack of central clearance for terminal-level communications.
NIO's 'user enterprise' positioning amplified the damage — users expect a brand to understand their culture, not commodify it.
Holiday marketing means understanding the holiday. Qingming is not a 'day off' — it is one of China's most solemn rituals. Making it a battery-swap ad backdrop is not creativity, it is an offence.
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