By Casey Hall and Clare Jim
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG/LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - France soccer captain Kylian Mbappe apologised to China on Tuesday after a fierce backlash over his comments referring to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a dictator, underscoring how swiftly global celebrities can come unstuck.
In a video on a French podcast that has since been taken down, Mbappe is heard discussing a funny meme where his face had been photoshopped on to that of "some guy — I think he's a Chinese dictator".
"During a recent interview, I reacted to an image of myself," Real Madrid forward Mbappe said in a statement. "My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world.
"I apologise to everyone my words have upset," added Mbappe, who has ties with firms including Swiss sportswear brand On Holding, hotel chain Accor and Lego. "This was absolutely not my intention"
The backlash highlighted the risks for athletes and brands in the lucrative China market, where satire about Mao, modern China's founding leader who ruled the country from 1949 until his death in 1976, remain a social taboo.
Other major organisations that have incurred the wrath of Beijing and Chinese netizens include fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana, Swiss watchmaker Swatch and the National Basketball Association.
Some recovered quickly while others took years.
"Mbappe's team knew, or should have known, what the true cost of Chinese brand endorsements was all about," said Terrence Burns, sports sponsorship expert and CEO of the T. Burns Sports Group.
Swiss-based On Holding, which signed Mbappe in September after he had spent two decades at US rival Nike, welcomed his apology and said it had "deep respect" for China.
Accor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Denmark's Lego, which has a Mbappe building set on sale in China, said it could not comment. The Mbappe set still featured on Lego's Chinese website on Tuesday.
'WHAT DID HE SAY?'
Chinese state media outlet China Daily said Mbappe's remark had "triggered a backlash among his Chinese fans, threatened his lucrative commercial relationships and offered a sharp reminder of the limits of celebrity influence".
"What did he say? Many Chinese would rather not repeat it," the state-backed Global Times added. "The message from Chinese consumers is clear: Respect is not optional; one doesn't get to profit from China while disrespecting it. Not a chance."
On Chinese social media platform Weibo one user wrote about the apology; "Not accepted. Not forgiven!!".
State broadcaster CCTV struck a more conciliatory tone, however,saying it would listen to what Mbappe had to say after his apology, and "even more importantly" watch what he does.
"We hope La Liga, Real Madrid, and Mbappe himself will genuinely learn a lesson from this, offer a sincere apology, and thoroughly correct their mistakes," CCTV said in a statement.
Real Madrid declined to comment.
Brands including dairy companies Mengniu and Shanghai Milkground Food Tech as well as Eastroc Beverage said they were ceasing all cooperation with Mbappe effective immediately.
The companies said they "firmly oppose and have zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."
China's state television has halted broadcasts of all matches and events involving LaLiga and Mbappe, and all advertisements involving Mbappe have been removed, state-backed media outlet the Paper reported on Tuesday.
Spain's LaLiga President Javier Tebas issued an apology on X and said his organisation deeply regretted the alleged comments that have caused discomfort and offence in China.
"We are taking the measures within our reach and working directly with our partners and interlocutors in China to overcome this situation," Tebas wrote. "A relationship built over so many years cannot be damaged by a single episode."
TRENDING ON WEIBO
As of 0700 GMT, four topics related to Mbappe were still among the top 10 trending searches on Weibo. Some netizens called for China to blacklist Mbappe and reduce his commercial value to zero. These comments received hundreds of likes.
Fans have been creating memes superimposing Mbappe's face on images of military and political leaders to suggest that he has the power to influence decisions at the teams he plays for.
Mbappe has been nicknamed "the dictator" in the European press.
"In attempting to laugh at himself and his reputation of being a dictator in the locker room, he apparently crossed a red line he didn't know was there," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.
In an interview with L'Equipe last month, Mbappe said that although aspects of the meme trend were harmless fun, the viral ones depicting him as a dictator showed "a lack of political and human awareness".
A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people "will naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society".
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, Clare Jim in Hong Kong, Casey Hall in Shanghai and Helen Reid in London; Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen and Alessandro Parodi in Paris; Editing by Peter Rutherford, Anne Marie Roantree, Adam Jourdan, Keith Weir and Ed Osmond)
