Beijing Consumer Association Issues Open Letter on Celebrity Advertising
On November 15, 2009, the Beijing Consumer Association issued an open letter to celebrities and movie stars as a follow-up to recent false-advertisement issues surrounding well-known Chinese media personalities Hou Yaohua, Zhao Zhongxiang and Tang Jiezhong. This is the fourth time that the Association has issued an open letter to celebrities and movie stars on controversial advertising practices. The letter points out four main issues associated with celebrity advertising: lack of knowledge of the products; exaggeration of the curative effects of medical services and/or drugs; illegal promotion of the efficacy of health-related products; and/or possessing the intent to 'trap' consumers through advertisements. This final category sounds a little broad. Please let us know if you know of any specific examples of ads that don't intend on "trapping" us. This may be a new innovation in the advertising marketplace of which we are not aware.
On November 11, the Professional Committee of Media Shopping, which is affiliated with the China General Chamber of Commerce, identified 20 commercials that it considers to be either in violation of applicable laws or an exaggeration of the relevant product's qualities. Zhao Zhongxiang, a 67-year-old veteran host for China's national TV station CCTV, starred in two of the identified advertisements, which promoted medicine curing coughs and heart diseases. On November 18, Zhao apologized for starring in these commercials.
Earlier in November, the China Advertisement Association identified 10 fake or unregistered medicine-related commercials in which famous cross-talk star Hou Yaohua starred. On November 6, Hou announced on his blog that he was sorry for his actions.
