Runbaiyan picked a KOL whose fans call themselves 'dogs' — and its female customers walked

In October 2021, Runbaiyan (润百颜), the flagship skincare brand of hyaluronic-acid maker Bloomage Biotech (688363.SH), forwarded a product-promotion video by the internet personality known as 'Daidai Dasxiong' (literally 'Lead-me Big Brother') on its official Weibo account. The KOL's audience identifies with a subculture that calls itself 'dog fans' and trades in deliberately offensive humour. Runbaiyan's own post played along, using a joke that reads, to the brand's overwhelmingly female customer base, as calling them dogs.

The backlash was immediate. Consumers accused the brand of insulting the very people who bought its products. Runbaiyan issued an apology within 24 hours, attributing the post to 'carelessness in our work'. The explanation satisfied nobody: a brand that had built a ¥490 million half-year business on women's skincare had either not researched the KOL's audience or had researched it and proceeded anyway.

The commercial damage outlasted the news cycle. Other KOLs began dropping Runbaiyan from their promotions. During the same period, Quadi (夸迪) — a sister brand under the same parent — rose to the top of Taobao's skincare rankings, suggesting that the customers Runbaiyan alienated did not leave the company; they left the brand. By 2025, Runbaiyan had disappeared from Tmall's beauty top-20 during the 618 shopping festival.

The brand amplified the insult, alienating female customers; the apology framed it as carelessness, and KOLs left, dropping the brand from top 20.

The marketing team chose a KOL for reach without vetting whether his audience culture was compatible with the brand's customer base.

The brand's own copy amplified the KOL's language instead of maintaining distance from it.

The 24-hour apology framed a strategic error as a clerical one ('carelessness'), which deepened the trust gap.

KOL-driven marketing concentrates brand risk in one person's reputation — when the KOL is toxic, the brand inherits the toxicity.

A KOL's audience is not a demographic; it is a culture. If that culture is built on insulting the people who buy your product, no amount of reach makes the partnership worth it.