Takagi Ramen's brand sentiments plummet following Tan Chuan-Jin and Cheng Li Hui social post

Ramen chain Takagi Ramen has been in the news lately for a trendjacking ad that seems to have landed quite poorly in the eyes of the public. Following the revelation this week that speaker of parliament Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and Tampines GRC MP Cheng Li Hui have resigned over an ongoing extramarital affair, the ramen chain took to social media to offer an e-voucher just for Tan and Cheng so they can meet and “end things once and for all” over free ramen. 

In the post, Takagi Ramen said: "We understand that your boss [Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong] already advised you guys twice to break up but you guys didn't. Let us help you, here is an e-voucher to the both of you to enjoy a bowl of hearty ramen and talk things out."

"We hope Takagi Ramen can be the place where the two of you meet to end things once and for all and start spending time with your loved ones who felt hurt by this," it continued in the caption. 

The image attached to the post offered two free bowls of ramen specifically to Tan and Cheng and noted that it was valid till 23 November 2025 and only at its Marine Parade outlet. 

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Takagi then added a separate and contradictory comment under its post saying, "On a serious note, please do not share personal photos of Tan and Cheng's families. While Tan and Cheng are public figures and signed up to be publicly scrutinised for their every action, their families did not sign up for this."

It continued by saying that Tan and Cheng committed the acts knowing full well the moral implications and with "multiple" reminders from family members and PM Lee. 

Since the controversial marketing post was put up by the restaurant, it has received much disapproval from netizens and marketers alike. Media intelligence company CARMA reported that its brand sentiments tanked as well with only 7.4% positive comments and a whopping 45.3% negative ones. Keywords associated with Takagi Ramen was also found to be on the negative side with words such as 'publicity stunt', 'distasteful', 'scandal' and 'bad' standing out.

"For a ramen company, there is little to no mention regarding its food," said a CARMA spokesperson. "While the political news may ease after some days or weeks, for a smaller home-grown brand, the impact of this campaign may last longer so it is important to keep tabs on how sentiments against the brand continue to develop," she said. 

"I would have drawn a line at this. A lot of people have created humour out of this situation, and I'm fine with that as I understand that for most of the public, it's popcorn entertainment. But to use someone else's misfortunes for marketing purposes, I think is going too far," said Edwin Yeo, the general manager at Strategic Public Relations Group. He added:

We really need to be guided by our empathy as well when we create campaigns that ultimately benefit our business.

Yeo added that the trendjacking post was "too personal" and that it does not consider the feelings of the minister's family members.

Agreeing with him, Will Lee, the managing director of That Marketing Guy, noted that when brands try to garner attention by leveraging current affairs involving the professional and personal lives of individuals in peril, it provides no value to anyone other than the brand.

"Trendjacking is a very noteworthy tactic. It allows the brand to insert itself into the latest topic on everyone's mind. And many brands have tasted success," he said, adding:

However, there is a line which we shouldn't cross, and that is to leverage negativity - and this was what Takagi Ramen had done.

True enough, when brands choose to engage in social commentary, either through thoughtful, longer-term cause-driven campaigns, or quick-turn trendjacking, they must accept that it comes with its risks, according to Danny Tan, the managing director at Grayling. He noted that with longer-term campaigns, marketers have the ability to better visualise and minimise brand risk through audience testing and other forms of risk mitigation.

"When it comes to trendjacking, however, brands simply do not have the luxury of time and must rely on their excellence in execution and their judgement of how their audience will react," he said. 

Unfortunately for Takagi Ramen, Tan expressed that he felt it was unsuccessful on both fronts. "Leaving aside the distasteful decision to leverage an unsavoury incident, the execution of the post lacked the finesse and subtlety required for it to pass muster."

He added that if, for instance, the post did not name names, but instead relied on wit and suggestion, he believes that the resulting reaction would have been more balanced.

"As it transpired, all the brand did was to end up in hot soup," he concluded. 

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