Recently, some netizens broke the news that Shanghai Youchun Animal Husbandry Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Youchun Animal Husbandry") has an improper advertising slogan printed on it with the inappropriate slogan "We raise dairy cows as daughters", which has aroused concern. Youchun Animal Husbandry then issued an apology statement saying that this slogan reflects the careful care of the cows, but did not consider the feelings of the female group, and decided to withdraw and replace the old slogan products.
The Beijing News reporter further found that since 2018, Youchun Animal Husbandry has increased the concept of "adopting a ranch" and using the "adoption" trademark logo on the dairy packaging, which is easy for people to associate its products with another internet red milk brand and a proposed listed company to "adopt a cow". Youchun Animal Husbandry's move has been questioned by some insiders to rub the traffic of well-known brands, and its claimed "adopted ranch" is also considered to be essentially a cooperative pasture, which is a relatively common milk source cooperation model.
On March 28, Lao Bing, the founder of Youchun Animal Husbandry, responded to the Beijing News reporter that "adoption" is a brand of Youchun Animal Husbandry, and the "adoption" brand obtained a registration certificate in 2016. Youchun "adoption" has its own positioning and business ideas, and also has its own industrial chain system.
Product slogans were accused of insulting women
On March 23, some netizens posted on Weibo, "Since you raise cows as daughters, what do you think of your daughters?" Add on that, the brand also uses the air crash topic to market itself! ”
The accompanying picture posted by the netizen shows that the product involved is a pasteurized milk called "adoption", and the bottle body is printed with "We raise cows as daughters!" According to a feedback from the Weibo customer service center, the content "Milk brand 'adoption': We raise cows as daughters" released by relevant netizens on February 28, 2022, was dealt with because it was complained by Youchun Animal Husbandry about infringement of reputation/goodwill/honor rights.
Netizens posted a picture of "adopted" pasteurized milk, and the bottle body was printed with "We raise cows as daughters!" Photo/Weibo screenshot
At the same time, the netizen also intercepted a Weibo post recently released by "Youchun Adoption Farm", which was mainly a prompt to drink warm milk, but at the same time typed keywords such as "#mu5735" and "132 people on the crashed flight of China Eastern Airlines#" below. This is also the netizen referring to the youchun ranch through the air crash marketing, and the relevant Weibo has been deleted.
In response to the above incident, Youchun Ranch issued an apology statement on March 23, saying that the starting point of the slogan "We raise dairy cows as daughters" is "from the idea of using this metaphor to reflect the careful care of dairy cows in the modern breeding process", but this slogan has not considered the comprehensive, especially the problem of women's group feelings. The Company decided to immediately withdraw and replace all old Slogan products.
However, some netizens believe that the apology statement of Youchun Ranch is "perfunctory", and some netizens mention the "air crash marketing" under the Weibo of Youchun Ranch. In this regard, Yu Chun Animal Husbandry replied, "Because I saw that many people were praying for blessings, I brought a topic, and the original intention was to pray for everyone's blessings." Xiaobian himself did not consider that it was inappropriate to bring this topic with the official enterprise, and apologize here. ”
According to the official WeChat content of Youchun Animal Husbandry, when the company established its Jiangsu branch in 2019 to start the offline milk ordering business, it played the slogan of "we raise dairy cows as daughters".
On March 25, 2022, a reporter from the Beijing News learned from youchun Animal Husbandry Jiangsu Branch that the slogan was applied to a fresh milk product, other products were not involved, and the Jiangsu branch had begun to process the old packaging products involved.
"Adopt" rub "adopt a cow" heat?
According to the enterprise investigation information, Youchun Animal Husbandry was established in 2016, the actual controller Laobing holds 70% of the equity of the company, and it owns a subsidiary Shanghai Youhe Pure Food Technology Co., Ltd., as well as 3 branches in Guizhou, Jiangsu and Wuxi Jiangyin.
In the process of publicity, the launch of youchun animal husbandry's "adoption" series of products, the use of the "adoption" logo, and the "adoption of 1,000 Juanshan cattle" and "from adopting a cow to adopting a pasture" and other corporate publicity content, it is easy for people to associate Youchun animal husbandry products with internet red milk brands and proposed listed companies to "adopt a cow".
In September 2018, youchun animal husbandry official WeChat released the article "Flying over 2.8 million kilometers in 20 years, from adopting a cow to adopting a pasture", saying that Youchun founder Lao Bing previously ran a dairy consulting company, and in 2006, in order to drink assured milk, after selecting 30 farms in East China, he adopted a cow from a dairy company. At first, the company delivered milk to the laborers once a week, and when he adopted 20 followers of the cows, the company began to deliver milk to him in a special car every day.
In September 2018, Youchun Animal Husbandry's official WeChat published an article about founder Lao Bing. Photo / Screenshot of the official WeChat of the enterprise
The article also said that because there was no formal product license, the adoption of dairy cows by the laborers was suspended for seven years, until 2015, when they adopted a ranch in Xinjiang. Since then, Lao Bing has set up a 5-person milk source inspection team, with the "adoption" of Xinjiang pasture, yak milk, buffalo milk series, and said that the territory of the adopted pasture will continue to expand. As of July 2018, youchun animal husbandry's "taste" series of products has sold 10,000 cups per day in a single store, and the sales volume of "adopted ranch" has increased at a rate of 10% per month. In March 2019, Youchun Animal Husbandry released the pure milk product information of "Adopting 1,000 Cows and Juanshan Cattle in Xinjiang" on the official micro-blog.
The Beijing News reporter noted that youchun animal husbandry in 2016 and 2017 focused on the concept of "different good yogurt", and the relevant products displayed by the official micro did not appear "adoption" related logos. It was not until the above article appeared in 2018 that the concept of "adoption" began to be frequently mentioned by Yu Chun. Nowadays, on the e-commerce platform, there are both "Youchun Food Flagship Store" and "Adoption Flagship Store", and both stores sell Youchun Animal Husbandry's "Adoption" series of products. In the "adoption flagship store", except for one buffalo milk, the package of the dairy products sold is marked with the "adoption" logo. Searching for "adoption" on the Taobao platform will also appear at the same time as the related links of the two brands of "Adopt Youchun" and "Adopt a Cow".
According to a dairy insider, the concept of "adoption" was first the idea of laborers, and later used and registered by the company "Adopt a Cow". However, from the perspective of brand awareness and sales, Youchun's "adoption" cannot be compared with "adopting a cow", "a bit rubbing the heat of 'adopting a cow'. ”
According to the listing counseling filing documents and official information, the Internet dairy brand Adopt a Cow Holding Group was established in 2014, and the "Adopt a Cow" brand was officially established in 2016. During the "Double 11" period in 2020, "Adopt a Cow" ranked first in the sales volume of the brand flagship store in the dairy industry.
According to the results of the search of China Trademark Network, As early as April 2015, Youchun Animal Husbandry applied for the registration of class 29 (the scope of registration includes milk, yogurt, etc.) to "adopt" trademarks, but was unsuccessful. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Youchun Animal Husbandry applied for registration of class 29 "adoption" trademarks, of which the "adoption" word + circle graphic trademark was applied for registration in July 2019, and the period of use was from March 2020 to March 2030. In 2021, Youchun Animal Husbandry applied for trademarks such as Class 29 "Adopting and adopting more than just a cow" and "Adopting it is not just a cow", which are currently awaiting substantive examination.
Numerous trademarks applied for by Youchun Animal Husbandry. Photo/ Screenshot of China Trademark Network
On the other hand, Hangzhou Adopt a Cow Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has applied for the registration of the relevant trademark of Class 29 "Adopt a Cow" since 2016, and the trademark of Class 29 "Adopt a Cow COW" applied for registration in August 2018 has been approved for use from September 7, 2019 to September 6, 2029. In addition, the company and its affiliates have also carried out a large number of registrations of trademarks related to "adopting a cow".
In response to the "adoption" series of publicity and products of Youchun Animal Husbandry, the adoption of a cow responded to the Beijing News reporter on March 25 that at present, in the trademark registration, "adopting a cow" is a valid registered trademark of Hangzhou Adopt a Cow Biotechnology Co., Ltd. "We attach great importance to brand protection, and we will discuss this issue you raised internally."
Lao Bing, the founder of Youchun Animal Husbandry, responded to the Beijing News reporter on March 28 that "adoption" is a brand of Youchun Animal Husbandry, which applied for registration with the State Intellectual Property Office in 2014 and obtained a registration certificate in 2016. Regarding whether there is a conflict between the use of the trademarks of youchun "adoption" and "adopting a cow", Lao Bing said that the two brands "have different positioning".
The situation of own ranch factories is a mystery
In addition to the controversy surrounding the "adoption" propaganda, the situation of its own pastures and factories actually controlled by Youchun Animal Husbandry is also a mystery.
The above-mentioned insiders believe that the so-called "adopted pasture" of Youchun Animal Husbandry is essentially the meaning of cooperative pasture, and this model is not fundamentally different from the cooperative pasture model adopted by large dairy enterprises such as Yili and Mengniu.
According to the micro-content of youchun animal husbandry officials, a pure milk sold in 2018 of "adopting Xinjiang ranch" is actually a foundry product, and the manufacturer is Xinjiang Ximu Dairy Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Western Animal Husbandry, and the milk source is most likely from Western Animal Husbandry or its related parties.
As early as 2016, Youchun Animal Husbandry announced in the official micro article that the company has production bases such as Nanjing, Changzhou, Lu'an, Xining and other production bases and supporting production ecological pastures. However, the industrial and commercial registration information shows that youchun animal husbandry Guizhou branch and Jiangsu branch were established in 2019, and Wuxi Jiangyin branch was not established until July 2021.
In April 2021, Youchun Animal Husbandry Announced that it has owned self-built processing plants in Wuxi, Yancheng and Guiyang, Jiangsu Province, and adopted pastures in Jiangsu, Guangxi, Yunnan, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other places. However, according to the information of the enterprise investigation, the registered address of the Guizhou branch of Youchun Animal Husbandry is displayed in "Guizhou Shengheng Dairy Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as "Shengheng Dairy"), and the two companies are the same registered address.
In the "adoption flagship store" of Youchun Animal Husbandry, a variety of product information shows that they are produced by Guizhou Shengheng Dairy. According to the investigation, Shengheng Dairy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guiyang Shengheng Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengheng Agriculture"), and Shengheng Agriculture also has 2 subsidiaries of Guizhou Muleyuan Dairy Goat Co., Ltd. and Qinglong Shengheng Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., but these companies have no direct equity association with Youchun Animal Husbandry.
In response to the problem of Youchun Animal Husbandry's self-built pastures and factories, Lao Bing, the founder of Youchun Animal Husbandry, responded to the Beijing News reporter, saying, "Youchun 'adoption' has its own positioning and business ideas, and also has its own industrial chain system", but did not elaborate.
Guo Tie, chief reporter of the Beijing News, pictures WeChat, Weibo, e-commerce screenshots
Edited by Zhu Fenglan Proofreader Liu Baoqing