Photo: VCG

Trade 10 mosquitoes for a cup of milk tea: That is the intriguing mosquito-elimination campaign launched by several shopping malls in East China's Jiangsu Province, where visitors are invited to collect mosquitoes, dead or alive, in exchange for rewards like a milk-tea voucher, domestic media outlet Jimu News reported.

The initiative has rolled out in cities including Yancheng, Lianyungang, and Suqian. A customer service staff member at Wuyue Plaza in Sucheng district, Suqian, said that this is the first time that the mall launched such an event. 
The mall offers tiered rewards corresponding to different quantities of captured mosquitoes. Visitors who catch three mosquitoes receive ice creams, five earn water guns, and 10 can claim branded milk tea. All gifts are available on a first-come, first-served basis while stocks last.

A staff member at one of the participating milk tea shops confirmed that the mall's redemption coupons had been fully distributed, and that winners could use them to claim the store's new seasonal milk tea drink, regularly priced at 23 yuan ($3.4).

Meanwhile, a staff member from the Wuyue Plaza in Haizhou district, Lianyungang, said the mall's event started on July 16 and has now concluded. The mall imposed no geographic restrictions on where participants could catch the mosquitoes, requiring only that they bring 10 specimens to the site to receive a voucher for the designated milk tea shop, Jimu News reported.

A staff member at a shopping mall in Yancheng also confirmed they have rolled out a similar activity.

This whimsical mosquito-elimination campaign has captured attention among netizens. Many netizens from Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality, and South China's Guangdong Province have expressed wishes that similar events could be launched in their local malls. Some even dubbed the campaign "a wanted notice issued by humanity against mosquitoes." Yet not all reactions were lighthearted. Some netizens also expressed concern that such a promotion might spark a bizarre trend of breeding mosquitoes on purpose.


Global Times