Puma apologises for ‘D7689’ Hong Kong marathon photo targeting CY Leung

Sportswear company Puma has apologised for a catty Hong Kong Marathon marketing stunt that appeared to have its claws out for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

A photograph posted on the brand’s official Facebook page ahead of the race showed a cat pawing a runners’ t-shirt with the marathon entrant number “D7689” attached to the front.

“D7” sounds similar to a vulgar Cantonese expression, while Leung’s critics often call him “689” – in reference to the number of votes he got from the 1,200-strong election committee at the 2012 chief executive election – to highlight his lack of a popular mandate to lead the city.

Puma removed the photo and said sorry after a Facebook user named Clement Wong complained. Wong then uploaded a screen grab to a pro-government group’s Facebook page of an email he received in reply from Puma’s general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, Ludovic Manzon.

“It is only when we received your comments that our team realised the issue, and found out that this was a fake runner number, which must have been made by Photoshop,” Manzon wrote.

“Please accept our apologies. Again there was absolutely no disrespectful intent of any nature, just a very unfortunate issue we didn’t identify on the spot.”