Pocari Sweat top drink for Hong Kong protestors, Chinese netizens call for boycott
寶礦力飲料挺香港抗議者 中國網民揚言抵制
Japanese sports drink has become entangled in Hong Kong's political crisis
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –A Japanese sports drink, Pocari Sweat, has become a drink of choice of among Hong Kong’s young protestors, and Chinese netizens are not happy about it. Over the past week, Chinese citizens have begun to boycott the product across China due to the popular perception that Pocari Sweat’s owner, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, is sympathetic to the Hong Kong protestors. Chinese anger at the company originated after it was revealed on social media that the company’s Hong Kong office decided to pull television advertising from the TBV network in Hong Kong on July 9. The next day, private Facebook messages showed that the ads were pulled “in response to public concern” due to TVB's overtly pro-Beijing bias in reporting. The pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were thrilled with the news and Pocari Sweat sales skyrocketed over the subsequent days, with Pocari Sweat being seen as an unofficial sponsor of the protests by many young activists, according to reports. However, an angry reaction soon followed from Chinese netizens, with calls for a national boycott of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. Protestors cleaning up after the Sheung Shui protest yesterday, it shows how the protestors positively responded to the brave action of Pocari Sweat (Japanese sports drink) decision to withdraw advertisement from TVB #PocariSweat pic.twitter.com/RVmF3LuwLV
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Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
2019-07-22 |