'Bamboo cicada' controversy offers lessons in digital-age crisis management

Why brands can't fully control the narrative

The internet has a habit of amplifying attempts to control it. A joke that might have entertained a few thousand people can become a national conversation once it enters the spotlight of public debate.

That is what happened with Huawei's “bamboo cicada” episode. The original meme had all the ingredients of today's online culture: a catchy phrase, an unmistakable sound and a format anyone could imitate in seconds. Left alone, it might have remained another fleeting inside joke. Instead, the growing public debate around the videos gave the meme a wider audience and a sense of shared meaning beyond its original context.

The conversation quickly moved beyond whether individual videos crossed legal lines. It became a broader debate about the boundaries between corporate reputation management and online satire. Once that shift occurred, the legal question was no longer the only story.

The irony is that Huawei helped create the conditions for the backlash. For decades, the company built its reputation on engineering discipline rather than marketing bravado. Yet the messaging around its smart-car business embraced the kind of sweeping promotional language that almost invites parody. That is the bargain in the age of social media. Brands that generate widespread attention through memorable slogans must anticipate that the public will engage with those slogans creatively, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Consumers also judge national brands differently. Companies that have earned public trust inherit something more valuable than market share: goodwill. That goodwill is finite. When legal complaints appear to target lighthearted online expression, many people do not see a company defending intellectual property. They see a powerful institution that has forgotten how ordinary people communicate online.

Other companies have explored alternative approaches. Years ago, Xiaomi chose to engage with the internet's creative remixes of founder Lei Jun's “Are you OK?” speech. It embraced the joke instead, turning it into an official ringtone and a recurring moment of self-mockery. What began as parody eventually became part of the company's public identity.

Once a slogan enters the digital public square, it belongs as much to the audience as to its creator. The most confident brands understand that long-term reputation is built not only through the assertion of legal rights, but also through the ability to engage with public culture on its own terms.

Zeng Fu'e is a professor at the Economics and Management School of Wuhan University.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.