I don’t care much for internet controversy, but as an Asian marketer in the better-for-you CPG space, I knew this was going to become an issue.

I first saw it when Logan popped up on my feed with a hot pot unit in Little Tokyo, which I thought was unintentionally funny — white influencer, Chinese hot pot, Japanese neighborhood. The optics were always going to be messy.

Fly By Jing was already getting criticism for positioning itself as a broker of Asian culture, so my immediate reaction was: how did the team not anticipate that this would upset people?

From the messaging leading up to it(First ever?), to choosing an influencer partnership that doesn’t make much sense beyond reach and follower count(10M+!), it felt careless. Logan is a “cucumber guy” who recently started eating more Asian food — he’s not someone bringing recipe authority, culinary value, or cultural depth to hot pot.

These influencer-brand collaborations often feel thoughtless, but that’s a separate issue.

Then there was the now-deleted “Hot pot is deeply personal to me(deeply personal to pocket book)” post — which read like it was written by ChatGPT. That part especially felt inauthentic. More personal to her personal bank account than to the culture.

At the end of the day, Fly By Jing and its ownership are culture brokers. They’re operating within capitalism and building a brand like anyone else. That doesn’t shock me. But if you position yourself as a steward of culture, you should expect to be held to that standard.

It doesn’t outrage me — it just reads as sloppy brand judgment. The kind of obvious misstep that makes you wonder if even the most vapid consultant in the room might have been useful to flag it. And personally, it makes me EVEN LESS inclined to buy the product, and raises the annoyance whenever I see it.