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Puma apologises for ‘D7689’ Hong Kong marathon photo targeting CY Leung

Sportswear company Puma has apologised for a catty Hong Kong Marathon marketing stunt that appeared to have its claws out for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

Samuel Chan
Puma removed the photo from its official Facebook page after it received a complaint. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Sportswear company Puma has apologised for a catty Hong Kong Marathon marketing stunt that appeared to have its claws out for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

A photograph posted on the brand’s official Facebook page ahead of the race showed a cat pawing a runners’ t-shirt with the marathon entrant number “D7689” attached to the front.

“D7” sounds similar to a vulgar Cantonese expression, while Leung’s critics often call him “689” – in reference to the number of votes he got from the 1,200-strong election committee at the 2012 chief executive election – to highlight his lack of a popular mandate to lead the city.

Puma removed the photo and said sorry after a Facebook user named Clement Wong complained. Wong then uploaded a screen grab to a pro-government group’s Facebook page of an email he received in reply from Puma’s general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, Ludovic Manzon.

“It is only when we received your comments that our team realised the issue, and found out that this was a fake runner number, which must have been made by Photoshop,” Manzon wrote.

“Please accept our apologies. Again there was absolutely no disrespectful intent of any nature, just a very unfortunate issue we didn’t identify on the spot.”

Before receiving Manzon’s email, Wong also got a reply from Puma CEO Bjoern Gulden, saying that he would look into the matter.

“I can assure you that we as Puma do not support any political standing,” Gulden wrote, according to another screen grab Wong posted on Facebook. “I will immediately forward your ‘findings’ to our Asian organisation to find out what the facts are.”

Puma said the photo was taken by a member of a running club at the Polytechnic University, which is one of several student bodies it has donated runners’ bib holders to.

Some runners waved yellow umbrellas or yellow cards at the starting line of the marathon yesterday to express support for the city’s pro-democracy movement, and one balloon was released into the air with a message calling for genuine universal suffrage.

Others ran in yellow outfits, or wore yellow stickers saying "I want genuine universal suffrage" on their vests.

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