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If you’ve been on social media the past week, you’ve doubtless seen the spectacle that was Duke Bakery’s Chocola Cheese Bread. But was this a genuine blunder, or a carefully calculated marketing stroke of genius?
The post was made to promote breads for the Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine’s Day. As the name suggests, the Chocola Cheese Bread is a freshly made chocolate bread with cream cheese filling.
Netizens immediately questioned the odd shape of the bread, particularly its resemblance to poop. The company later clarified that the ‘U’ shape was intended to be a symbol of good luck, but didn’t anticipate the public’s reaction.
Duke Bakery later released a redesigned version of the bread for the Qixi Festival, now resembling a heart. Now it’s impossible to unsee the bread’s resemblance to poop.
What netizens might not have noticed, though, was Duke Bakery doubling down on the dookie with a post advertising their Chocolate Bun, which some people immediately noticed strongly resembled animal droppings.
This made me wonder— was this intentional? The Chocola Cheese Bread is by no means a new product; it’s been on Duke Bakery’s shelves for 13 years.
So here’s my hypothesis. Duke Bakery already had a redesign for their Chocola Cheese Bread in mind, and devised a marketing scheme where they used potty humour to gain traction online while acting oblivious.
Then, after the post reached critical mass and all eyes were on Duke Bakery, they’d drop the brand-new, updated redesign of the Chocola Cheese Bread.
Or am I just overthinking it, and Duke Bakery captured lightning in a bottle through sheer coincidence and failing upwards?
No matter the intention, Duke Bakery’s Qixi Festival promotion was a resounding success, seeing how we were unable to grab a loaf to try as they were all sold out 3 days in a row.
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