Yili leaked premature Olympic winner ads, was branded 'poison milk' and apologised twice

On the evening of 3 August 2024, before the women's singles table tennis final, Yili's test ads lit up a big screen at Beijing's Sanlitun showing Sun Yingsha as champion, Zheng Qinwen with silver and Fan Zhendong on course for a Grand Slam — none of it had happened yet.

Chen Meng beat the favourite Sun Yingsha that night to defend her Olympic title, so two of the three leaked materials showed results opposite to the actual outcome, and the third jinxed an athlete who had not yet competed.

Netizens labelled the dairy giant 'poison milk' (毒奶), a pun on jinxing, and #伊利道歉# hit the hot searches. Yili apologised on 3 August and again on 4 August, blaming a public screen test of animation-heavy, multi-screen ads.

The brand said it prepares at least three ad versions for every athlete's match and promised to tighten its ad-release process, but the episode became the year's lesson in betting an Olympic campaign on a predicted result.