The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
DAMIANI swapped its store-opening star after Wang Bojie's drink-driving arrest
The night before opening its Breeze store, DAMIANI pulled Wang Bojie from the guest list after his drink-driving arrest; Taipei Film Festival dropped him too.
DAMIANI · 2024-06-19
What happened
On 18 June 2024 Taiwanese actor Wang Bojie was arrested in Taipei after his car collided with a coach in Neihu district, no one injured, with police taking him in on suspicion of endangering public safety. He was due the next afternoon to appear as the star guest at the opening of Italian jeweller DAMIANI's new Breeze Center store.
That night the brand pulled him. DAMIANI swapped its guest of honour for actor Cai Fanxi at a few hours' notice, and the opening went ahead without Wang. The 26th Taipei Film Festival, which had named him one of its Top Talents and scheduled him to co-announce the Best Actor prize, also removed his presenting role.
Taiwanese outlets framed the episode as endorsement value erased overnight: NOWnews reported fans flooding his page with boycott calls, and Huashi TV tallied the episode as a lost endorsement on top of the festival slot. For the brand the damage stayed limited — a stand-in kept the opening on schedule — but the swap was decided within hours of the arrest.
Why it happened
- DAMIANI was opening a flagship boutique and had built the event around Wang Bojie's name, so the arrest left the brand hours to re-plan its opening
- The decision came within hours: booked faces are rented trust, and once the news broke the cost of keeping him on stage was judged higher than the cost of a late swap
- The single-event deal still died overnight — a warning that even a one-off appearance carries full reputational risk, with no long contract to slow the exit
- The festival following the same week showed the whole calendar of a flagged face collapses at once, not just one brand's event
The lesson
A booked face is rented trust. An event built around a celebrity turns into a liability the moment the news breaks, and the brand's only move is a fast swap.
Aftermath
DAMIANI's Breeze Center opening went ahead with Cai Fanxi as planned; Wang Bojie's agency made no public statement about the lost appearances.
Sources
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