What seemed to be an innocent fun run to celebrate our favorite feline’s 40th birthday turned out to be a PR disaster
Wet weather conditions dampened the mood of $75-paying participants – some of which with toddlers. As if things weren’t bad enough, people braved the rain to the finish line to find out that damn it, they ran out of the finisher medals.
Participants took no time at all to take to the run’s Facebook page to give the organizers a piece of their mind. Hell hath no furry like a Hello Kitty lover scorned. I mean, really?
It’s official. Singaporeans are cat crazy (or at least for the cat without a mouth). We look at several other events where Singaporeans tore each other’s hair out to lay their hands on Kitty merchandise.
1. Hello Kitty Millennials (circa. 2000)
In 2000, McDonald’s in Singapore launched six pairs of Hello Kitty with her male counterpart, Dear Daniel, dressed in different costumes. This limited edition series promoted by McDonald’s became the most wanted thing in the new millennium. 300,000 Singaporeans (young and old alike) jammed all 114 McDonald’s outlets in Singapore all day. It turned McDonalds’ into practically a battlefield – for a plush toy. Fights, quarrels, ugly human behavior or basically drama ensued.
- In one outlet (Boon Keng), the glass panel shattered with constant pressure of the pushing and shoving of the unruly crowd.
- Many just wanted the plush toys, but the toys came only with a happy meal. Yup, I bet the trash employees took out consisted of several hundreds of happy meals.
- Tens arrested for rioting and/or unruly behavior at several outlets.
For a detailed timeline of the shenanigans that went on, click here.
2. Hello Kitty Bubbly World (circa. 2013)
Every time the haze hits, we find excuses to stay indoors. This time, we braved hazardous air and queued for hours for yet another special Hello Kitty plush yet again from McDonalds’. This time around, the toys were in outfits inspired by fairy tales like Wizard of Oz or The Ugly Duckling. Throngs of Kitty fans lined up at outlets around the island to be the first to own these plush toys, with police and cisco guards called in to control the crowds. As usual, fights broke out, queues were cut, heated arguments were inevitable.
It seemed the situation was no different from 13 years ago – hasn’t McDonalds’ learnt?
And then, with the increase of social media usage, people took to the different online platforms selling these toys at at least 20 times the price. You’ll be surprised – people did fork out the money.
3. Hello Kitty Run (circa. 2014)
Our favorite Sanrio character turns 40. The Gods didn’t give her any favor during her birthday bash, though. The weather was unforgiving during the run and throngs of Kitty fans – with a handful dressed to the nines – were drenched. The distance of the run was also reduced to a mere 3 km instead of the original 5. To further break the hearts of these fans, there were not enough finisher medals to go around supposedly because too many people took more than they were supposed to.
And then as usual, several participants took to online selling platform Carousell to sell the finisher medals at pretty ridiculous prices, if I may add.
The result: Hello Kitty Run’s Facebook page drowning in complaints and of mixed reviews (and of course people flaming the behavior of the looters).
Source: Hello Kitty Run Facebook Page
Whatever it is, I’m steering clear of wherever in Singapore that is holding some sort of Hello Kitty event. Were you a participant of any of those events? Were you a runner at last Saturday’s event? We’d love to hear your views. Let us know!
By Eu Shuqi
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