Two rival shopping platforms trended on social media after one of them teased that Toni Gonzaga will be its new endorser.
Toni has been the subject of public scrutiny for her political views since the 2022 elections campaign season.
RELATED: Throwing shade? ‘Starting Over Again’ scene featuring Toni Gonzaga resurfaces amid controversial hosting | ‘Kapamilya way’: ‘PBB’ opens eviction ep with ABS-CBN core values, theme music
Meanwhile, Shopee Philippines on Wednesday, September 28 posted teaser video that hinted Toni as its new endorser.
While Toni’s face was not shown in the video, the rest of her features were easily recognizable.
Shopee made a “big reveal” about the endorsement and introduced Toni as its new brand ambassador on Thursday, September 29.
FINALLY, makikilala niyo na siya 😉
Drop your guesses and CATCH HER tomorrow at 3PM for the big reveal! #ShopeePH pic.twitter.com/Xy6F3IC5cs
— Shopee Philippines (@ShopeePH) September 28, 2022
Prior to the reveal, the e-commerce platform’s teaser posts on Facebook and Twitter blew up.
The feedback, however, was not favorable.
Shopee’s Facebook post garnered 7,100 reactions, 2,700 comments and 1,000 shares so far. Of the reactions, 3,900 were angry reactions, 2,400 were laugh reactions and the rest were likes.
Shopee’s tweet about it has 301, retweets and 17,300 quote-retweets. There were only 2,280 likes so far.
The keyword “Shopee” quickly trended on Twitter Philippines following the release of the teaser video. It is still on the trending list on Thursday with 264,000 tweets under its belt.
Coincidentally, its rival platform Lazada Philippines also became the talk of the town online.
The keyword “Lazada” landed on the trending topics of Twitter Philippines with 33,600 as of writing.
The sudden engagement soon reached the company.
To thank its customers for it, Lazada announced a surprise giveaway of vouchers worth P500 to ten lucky winners.
The platform did not mention other details about this move.
“Thanks for always thinking of us, Ka-Lazada!” Lazada said.
“At dahil dyan, lahat ng magreply with a LINK of the item they want from #LazadaPH + the hashtag #LazadaPH, may chance manalo ng ₱500 voucher! We’ll pick 10 winners before this day ends,” it added.
Thanks for always thinking of us, Ka-Lazada!🥰💙
At dahil dyan, lahat ng magreply 👇 with a LINK of the item they want from #LazadaPH + the hashtag #LazadaPH, may chance manalo ng ₱500 voucher!
We’ll pick 10 winners before this day ends.😊
— Lazada Philippines (@LazadaPH) September 28, 2022
Its post also took off. The tweet has so far garnered 924 retweets, 418 quote-retweets and 6,283 likes.
Lazada announced the ten winners of its promotional contest a few hours later.
Some online users, meanwhile, noticed how Lazada was able to leverage the online buzz.
“Get that bag bff!!! Kaka-check out ko lang for the first time,” one user said.
“Gotta strike while the iron’s hot,” another user said.
Criticisms mount
Some social media users perceived it as a bad time for Shopee to announce a new endorser after the parent company reported a lay-off of its workers in Southeast Asia.
“Magle-layoff ng employees pero kukuhang bagong endorser as if naman they need more traction?” one Twitter user said.
They also vented out their ire over Shopee’s choice of celebrity endorser.
“Nagbawas kayo ng workforce, tas magbabayad kayo ng endorser na fascist apologist? Kung totoo ang tsismis, will delete my app, will contact directly the sellers. Goodbye Shopee!” award-winning author Jerry Gracio said.
Based on reports, Shopee previously announced that it is permanently shutting down operations in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.
READ: SEA’s Shopee shuts operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico —sources
Other reactions, meanwhile, were more scathing. They expressed their plans to uninstall its mobile application.
“Will definitely uninstall,” one online user said.
“Goodbye Shopee! Wrong choice of the endorser,” another online user declared.
“With this, I’ve decided to just finish my transactions with Shopee and empty my spay then I’ll uninstall it na. I won’t tolerate a company that plans to lay off employees and got an enabler as their endorser,” a Twitter user said.
Some online users expressed their concern about the welfare of Shopee’s merchants.
“I’m not worried for workers ng Shopee per se. I’m worried for the sellers in the app if the boycott will happen,” one Twitter user said.
