The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Meituan's courier ad romanticised a rider buying a camera — riders called it fantasy
Meituan's 2025 promo told a story of a courier earning 15,000 yuan in 3 months to buy a camera. Real riders, earning 4,500/month, pulled it apart.
Meituan (美团)
What happened
In early December 2025, Meituan released a promotional video about a former graphic designer who became a food delivery courier. The ad claimed she earned 15,000 yuan in three months and bought a professional camera, delivering a romantic message about following dreams and enjoying the scenery along the way.
Real delivery riders dismantled the ad on social media. The average courier works 12-hour days for about 4,500 yuan per month; 15,000 yuan in three months would require near-impossible earnings. Riders called the ad 'fantasy propaganda' that erased the rain, heat, and traffic danger of the job.
The actress in the ad was harassed online and forced to issue a public apology, deleting her social media posts. Netizens defended her: 'The person who should apologise is the ad team, not the actress — she was hired to read a script.' Meituan pulled the ad within days. The controversy deepened the brand's reputational crisis amid a reported 16 billion yuan quarterly loss and intensifying competition from JD.com and Alibaba.
Why it happened
- The numbers were impossible: 15,000 yuan in three months against a 4,500 yuan monthly average — the camera was unaffordable on the income the ad used as proof.
- The tone deafness was structural: Meituan's ad team created a romance about a workforce the company is squeezing on algorithm-time and base pay — the ad and the labour model contradicted each other.
- The actress became the scapegoat: a performer reading a script was forced to apologise for the creative team's decisions, and the public knew it.
- The timing compounded the damage: during a quarter of 16 billion yuan losses, the ad told workers to be grateful for the job being optimised against them.
The lesson
An ad about your own workforce is a wage negotiation, not a brand campaign. The riders checked the math.
Sources
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