Image: Visual China

BEIJING, January 12 (TMTPOST) — Multinational fast-food chain KFC has been lambasted by China Consumers Association for luring customers into overbuying with its mystery box campaign.

The American fast-food brand recently partnered with Chinese toy maker Pop Mart and rolled out Dimoo Mystery Box meals, which are available in KFC’s outlets in first and second-tier cities in China. There are six common characters and one rare character that consumers can get from opening the mystery boxes that come with the Dimoo Mystery Box meals. Each Dimoo Mystery Box meal contains one Pop Mart’s Dimoo mystery box.

Customers would need to purchase at least six Dimoo Mystery Box meals in order to get the full collection of Dimoo toys in the best case scenario. According to the mystery box campaign’s rules, customers only have a 1-to-72 chance to get the rare character.

Some consumers have spent a lot on purchasing the Dimoo Mystery Box meals to get the toys. It is reported that one consumer even spent 10,494 yuan and bought 106 sets of Dimoo Mystery Box meals. Some consumers paid others to eat the meals they purchased so that they could get the toys. There are also cases in which consumers would throw away the meals and only keep the toys, causing massive food waste.

China Consumers Association has criticized KFC for causing food waste and overbuying in an article on its website while recognizing it is common for companies to use sales activities and promotion campaigns to boost sales. The association points out that consumers would not overbuy food under normal circumstances and that the recent overconsumption was caused by KFC’s hunger marketing strategy with the mystery box crossover.

KFC is still selling the Dimoo Mystery Box meals though most of them have already sold out, Sina Tech reported, citing KFC’s customer service team. “The mystery box campaign will last until the 16th,” KFC’s customer service team said.