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On the Menu | From Lee Kum Kee to Vitasoy, brands are obsessed with creating cute Jellycat-like trinkets
The ‘Jellycatification’ of brands is everywhere, with each new deliciously adorable collection igniting my cuteness aggression
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Forget Labubu. Not a week goes by without a brand – luxury, mainstream or otherwise – dropping their latest set of cute, anthropomorphic character plushies and keychains.
The trend for most of 2025 has definitely been accessorising one’s bag with all manner of collectibles, but also the rise of British soft toy brand Jellycat.
The company has been around since 1999, but only seriously blew up worldwide in the last year thanks to a simple-but-clever marketing shtick: creating a diner set up to sell its Amuseables food plushies line and training staff to act accordingly, taking orders and packing up items like bagels and pancakes to an adoring public.
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It worked – the company’s revenue increased by 66 per cent in 2024.
Since then, the “Jellycatification” of everything has been blatant, with other brands attempting to cash in on the obsession, turning everything in sight into a character. After all, all you need to do is slap two beady little eyes and a smile onto anything to make it cute. In what other context would a bottle of pungent White Flower medicinal oil look so appealing?
Meanwhile, this craze for adorable, chubby little food and drink items has gone as far as Australia, where Hong Kong brand Vitasoy has sent my Aussie friends into a supermarket frenzy with its new line of plushies: signature lemon tea and soy milk boxes, but also classic Cantonese bakery items and dim sum.
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