The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
Qijing scrubbed Su Mang's ambassadorship 11 days after the launch
GAC's new auto brand named Su Mang its 'chief aesthetics officer', then deleted every poster and video 11 days later and said she was never the spokesperson.
Qijing (启境) · 2026-05-28
What happened
On 14 May 2026, Qijing — the premium smart-car brand built jointly by GAC Group and Huawei's Qiankun unit — announced fashion-media figure Su Mang as the 'chief aesthetics officer' of its GT7 model. The announcement drew immediate criticism online as old remarks of hers resurfaced, and within days the praise turned into calls for the brand to drop her.
The brand moved fast and silently. From 25 May, eleven days after the launch, Qijing began deleting cooperation posters and videos across its channels, and by 27 May the material was gone site-wide — with no statement in between. On 27 May Su Mang's lawyers at Beijing Xingquan law firm filed reputation-defamation suits against several accounts that had spread the criticism.
On 28 May Qijing issued an official statement: Su Mang had attended the event as a guest, was 'not a brand spokesperson for the GT7', and the brand had stopped circulating related content, with future tasting-officer roles to be recruited openly from customers. A cooperation that had been launched with ceremony eleven days earlier was erased with a one-paragraph disclaimer.
Why it happened
- A face picked for aesthetics turned into the controversy itself, so the launch had to be unwound within two weeks
- Silence was the first move: the brand deleted every trace before issuing any explanation, treating the material as the liability
- The exit line — 'she was never the spokesperson' — protected the brand by downgrading a paid public role to a guest appearance
The lesson
A brand that celebrates a celebrity on Monday can be forced to delete every trace of her by Friday — the launch budget buys reach, not control over what happens next.
Aftermath
Qijing said future tasting-officer roles would be recruited openly from customers. Su Mang kept her own response going: her lawyers sued the accounts that spread the criticism. No compensation figure was reported.
Sources
- 搜狐: 启境汽车官宣苏芒为GT7首席美学品鉴官后删除物料 5月28日声明非代言人
- 盖世汽车: 启境GT7合作海报全网删除 官方称苏芒非代言人(2026-05-28)
- 腾讯新闻: 苏芒品鉴官官宣11天被删物料 委托律所启动名誉维权(2026-05-28)
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Luyuan apologised after a 'lunch break' ad showed a model in a tight skirt and stockings
Great Wall's Wey V9X launch ad aped Range Rover Sport; the brand apologised
Arcfox scrubbed its 4-month-old ambassador the night a gaokao fraud notice broke
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.