This Chinese Snack Giant Just Gave Its Mascot a Debut Single
Sunflower seed giant Chacha — the brand behind those ubiquitous little blue-and-white packets — just did something no Chinese snack maker has pulled off before:
Sunflower seed giant Chacha — the brand behind those ubiquitous little blue-and-white packets — just did something no Chinese snack maker has pulled off before: it debuted a virtual spokesperson with her own single.
On July 30 in Beijing, Chacha officially unveiled "Qia Ke'er" (洽可儿), the first brand-owned digital ambassador in China's leisure snack industry. But this isn't a logo slapped on a cartoon. She arrives with a full backstory: "Chief Happiness-Sharing Officer," "Sunflower Town seed-roasting technique inheritor," and "brand-owned all-rounder entertainer" — three identities wrapped into one virtual persona, complete with her own visual system and origin lore.
The launch came with a full music video,
The World Qia Qia Together
, produced entirely with AI. In it, Qia Ke'er is bright, energetic, and very much designed to feel like a living character rather than a mascot. Going forward, Chacha plans to drop her into offline installations, product education, e-commerce, and regular livestreaming — plus a series of brand shorts and pop-up performances.
What makes this more interesting than a novelty gimmick is the patience behind it. Chacha has been quietly laying groundwork for years. In 2021, it partnered with Antchain on a "Chacha Nut Universe" digital collectible project, dipping a toe into virtual brand assets. In 2022, it launched an AR mini-app that let users scan packaging to trigger an animation of a virtual sunflower seed sprouting. Those scattered experiments have now converged into one cohesive, systemized virtual ambassador.
The logic is clear: sunflower seeds are a famously analog, hands-on snack — something older generations associate with cracking shells around a table. By giving its mascot a voice, a music video, and a place in livestreams and short dramas, Chacha is translating "eating seeds" into the digital language Gen Z actually lives in. It's less about the song and more about making a decades-old habit feel native to an app-native generation.
Whether Qia Ke'er has the charisma to carry a livestream on her own is another question. But for a brand built on a snack you eat one at a time, turning its mascot into a pop star is a pretty bright move.
