In a recent Dragons’ Den episode, a Canadian boba tea business named Bobba was in a cultural controversy after Marvel actor Simu Liu pointed out something wrong with the business idea. A Quebec-based bubble tea business proposition delivered by Sebastien Fiset and Jess Frenette proposed to revolutionize the existing bubble tea market by advertising their product as ‘healthier’ containing only three ingredients.
YN graduated from Fitch, and Liu, a guest judge on the show, expressed concerns, saying, “I am worried about it causing disruption or disturbance of bubble tea.” He discussed the necessity of the drink to the Taiwanese culture and asked if the company had someone who could appreciate this fact. Fiset, however, quickly defended itself by noting that its main partner is from Taiwan and it is their role to come up with the recipes.
Within 24 hours, the video became extremely popular, and people voiced their concerns on different social networking sites. As a result, the Bobba founders came out on social media to tender their apology for their utterances and conduct during the pitch. Simu Liu stressed the problem of cultural appropriation, and they agreed with all of her points about the drink and promised to rethink their logo and ad campaigns.
Liu tried to calm the situation further and asked his followers not to send negativity to the aspiring businessmen. He finally decided against putting his money into Bobba, based on his worries, but emphasized he was not in favor of any type of harassment of owners.
First, there is the statement of Judge Manjit Minhas, who declared her readiness to invest and called for innovation in regular recipes. But in response to the criticism and discussion in the crowd, she once again stated on the Internet that she would decline the offer, while also stressing the need to engage in respect for such talks.
This has been in recent past some critical debates on cultural relativism, particularly in the food donors, a wake-up call to aspiring capitalists, and cultural respect as an essential aspect of the strategy and business model.
