On the last day of June, roughly 4 months after its death and subsequent resurrection in February, Duo the Owl, the mascot of the language learning app Duolingo, announced on Weibo (China’s Twitter equivalent) that it would be getting married in July. The green owl also posted a picture of itself wearing a wedding dress.
Like many “abstract” meme-tic posts, especially from a wildcard account like Duolingo’s, not only are followers engaging, but also brands. Alibaba’s AI Tongyi app directly asks in the comment section what it should do now that it’s already with child. To which Duolingo replied: “I’ll take responsibility if the child is mine, otherwise…”. McDonald’s, on the other hand, offers taro pie to the newlyweds, as taro “香芋” and encounter “相遇” are both pronounced “xiangyu”. Duo responds: “Stop sending, I don’t want my mother-in-law to think I only order takeaway and not cook”.
- #多邻国猫头鹰官宣结婚 Owl from Duolingo announces marriage: 9.61 million views on Weibo, ranking number 23 on the Hot Search list
However, for regular social media users, the biggest question remains: “who’s the groom?” The answer has gradually begun to reveal itself after another brand began started teasing. It appears that the most likely groom in this union is Lucky, the deer mascot of Luckin Coffee, a leading coffee chain in China.
From photos of the two mascots’ shadows to asking advice on the “first time getting married” without mentioning Duolingo, Luckin has been teasing the wedding since 3 July. And it also disclosed that the big day is 8 July. While the prize draw indicates the launch of the collaboration drinks will be on 6 July, Rednote users are already posting the exclusive cups. As leaks continue, we might finally see what the “wedding of the century” (as Luckin calls it) will look like.