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Whose fault is it anyway?: The Blame game, and state censorship, take some new twists in China
posted Friday, 10 June 2005
Anybody who has been watching mainland Chinese television for the past week may have aware that there has been a slight shift in its content, not the content of the programs themselves, but rather in the content of the advertisements that have been displayed between them because, exactly one week ago today, Beijing censors ordered that range of advertisements featuring celebrity endorsements be removed from the air.
The latest edict from Beijing’s media censorship units now makes it illegal to for domestic networks to broadcast advertisements where celebrities act as patients or consumers, or where they play the role of ‘experts’ who endorse cosmetics or medical products.
The first advertisement to be being removed from the air was a celebrity endorsement for a children’s calcium based dietary supplement.
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"It's improper for public figures, including film and TV
stars, to promote products in ads as consumers. They may easily mislead
the public" |
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However, the actual contents of many of the banned advertisments, and the claims that they make regarding their products, would be considered reason enough to remove them from air in themselves in many countries, leading to some claims that Beijing is ignoring the real problem , and other claims that Beijing is finding a convenient scapegoat, which is acceptable to the public, in order to conceal its real motives.
Backlash
The latest move by Chinese censors comes as China is experiencing a rising tide of misleading or inaccurate advertisements, and follows after a number of embarrassing scandals involving celebrity endorsements where products have not lived up to manufacturers claims, some of which have no grounds in fact or science.
In recent years, such advertisements have exploded onto Chinese screens, many carried by state television and by China’s rapidly expanding semi-autonomous television networks, and often depict products that either have no proven benefit, or which can actually be dangerous if used over a long duration or if mixed with components found in traditional Chinese medicines or other health products.
Examples of such advertising include:
• Vitamin supplements to boost children’s IQs, which is not medically possible unless the child is suffering from extreme deficiencies that cause retardation, and which are often taken as a preventative measure rather than a 'treatment'.
• Surface skin treatments to remove deep tissue scaring, which often require surgery to correct
• Calcium based dietary supplements that claim to be able to increase the height, which is not usually medically possible in post pubescent adults, and which cannot substantially increase the height of a child above the genetic determiners set by their race and parentage (and which have no impact on IQ, contrary to what has been claimed by some advertisements).
• Hormonal breast enlargement treatments, which loose their effectiveness at menstruation, and which can have long term consequences on the consumers health.
The Wrong Target?
Though there is a clear need to regulate China’s celebrity heavy advertising and endorsement industry, many have voiced that the best way to go about reducing the impact of fraudulent advertisements should be to introduce, and enforce, a solid written advertising code, rather than to prevent influential figures from appearing in advertisements, and there are concerns that official attention is disproportionately focusing on the highest profile aspects of recent advertising scandals, the celebrities themselves, rather than on the products that they are advertising and the companies that are producing and commissioning the advertisements.
After the emergence of a number of recent advertising scandals, public figures and the state controlled media have openly criticized celebrities as being the ones responsible for misleading the public, often accusing them of abusing their status, calling on them to offer personal apologies, and to stop offering product endorsements.
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“Advertisers are taking advantage of the credibility and star appeal of celebrities to reach out to consumers” |
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In turn, many celebrities have responded that they are not always in a position to judge the claims made about the products that they endorse, saying that they are often no better informed than the products consumers when it comes to the effectiveness of a product.
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"It is unfair to pass the buck to celebrities" |
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Some feel that actors ‘protests, against being blamed for misleading adverts, are particularly valid as many complaints of fraudulent advertising, and the latest ban, relate to exclusively to cosmetic and medical products.
Figures from the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce indicate that, during 2003, half of all fraudulent adverts air on across national and regional satellite networks were for medical products. During the first quarter of 2005, medical advertisements accounted for two in three of all deceptive advertisements.
Mentality
The problem of celebrity endorsements in China is also clouded somewhat by the prevailing mentality in China of seeing many things ‘as presented’, meaning that many, but not all, mainland Chinese are often not ‘mentally conditioned’ to question the images presented to them in advertisements in the same way ‘more worldly’ foreign consumers are, intelligent people not to question the images being presented to them in the same manner as their foreign counterparts would.
This has not only lead to problems where advertisements have been fraudulent or misleading, yet have been taken at face value by consumers, but has also lead to problems when advertisements do not make it clear whether the characters appearing in them are people who have used the product themselves, or are actors.
The problem is substantially exasperated when the characters are actors themselves.
In one example, cited in the Chinese English language media (and not independently verified by this site), there was public outrage when it was revealed that a character in a dietary supplement advertisement was an actress with no children, who was playing the part of a mother whose ‘son’ had benefited from taking the advertised product. The actress was blamed for missleading the public by playing the role of a mother, despite being an actress by trade.
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“A Chinese actress once starred in a TV commercial
advertising a calcium tablet, and in it she claimed her son has
benefited from the product. |
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Financial Motives?
Cynically, Beijing’s reluctance to act against fraudulent advertisements, but apparent enthusiasm to move against the celebrities in them, can be seen as part of the wider semi state sanctioned ‘cash in and run’ phenomena that is commonly observed in China, where by businesses are ‘allowed’ to operate fraudulently until they draw too much attention, as long as they are profitable and accelerate the Chinese economy, at which time they are publicly admonished but are permitted to ‘disappear’ and set up a similar business again.
While bad for Chinese consumers, this phenomenon provides many short term advantages for the Chinese economy; promoting infrastructure investment, encouraging consumer spending, and enabling businesses to operate at reduced costs because they do not have to meet the standards for quality and integrity that are found in competing economies. This trend however is bad for long term development.
Office Politics?
Skeptics have also voiced that placing the focus of blame on celebrities, for endorsing misleading products, is an effort to shift attention and criticism away from Beijing, whose task it should be to regulate the advertising industry, but which has so far taken a largely retroactive approach; acting to ban advertisements after the damage has been done, and profits have been made, rather than to produce a strong framework to ensure that advertisements do not make inflated claims and to act against those that do.
Because China has no independent consumer watchdog, criticism of adverting regulation is politically difficult, because it is the state that regulates advertising. This means that criticism of poor advertising standards is a form of indirect criticism of the state.
There have also been concerns in Beijing over the level of influence wielded by some celebrities, with the worry that if a celebrity can influence a person’s choice of cosmetic or medical products, simply be offering a personal endorsement, then they might also be able to influence public opinion in other regions, including politics.
These phenomena can be widely seen in the west and in neighboring Japan, where celebrities frequently support or oppose a broad range of issues; bringing their ‘fan base’ with them, leading to suspicions that Beijing's latest crackdown may be motivated by self interest as well as consumer protection.
Two examples of this phenomena are the Irish singer Robert Geldof; whose fund raising activities have shamed several western governments into acting on world poverty, and the US phenomena of celebrity news readers and talk show hosts; whose political commentary is commonly considered to be key to turning public opinion towards or against politicians and political issues.
Culture?
Though some would argue that it is a minor elements, China watchers have voiced that the current phenomena, to place blame on the celebrities who are endorsing disreputable products, may have some of its roots in Chinese culture.
China has what is commonly known as a ‘face’ based culture, meaning that it often centers around appearance and surface concept, this make it more natural for some Chinese to blame the spokesperson than it does to blame those behind the spokesperson.
In the west, this approach is commonly known as ‘shooting the messenger’.
Starting Small?
Though initially the crackdown is set to target health and cosmetic products, it is not clear if it will be expanded to cover other products at a later date, or if such an expansion is considered necessary.
One area however that is unlikely to be wholly covered by a crackdown, though it deserves attention, is the field of educational advertisements. With many schools making dramatic claims as to their successes and facilities, and many educational product producers making similarly dramatic claims.
One view held by China watchers, as to why a crackdown on educational endorsements is unlikely, is that it would need to be specially adjudicated so as to allow CCP poster-boy Mark Rowswell, AKA 大山 to continue his wide ranging endorsement program.
This latest crackdown comes at a time when some Chinese industries are facing overly high levels of scrutiny, often conducted without clear or publicly available guidelines, while other industries go almost unregulated, and at a time when Beijing’s emphasis on growth in key industrial sectors is allowing many manufacturers and designers to operate with near impunity, but to ensure that anything that could influence public opinion is tightly controlled by the government.
View Comments/Add a Comment (3)
1. yuanme left...
Saturday, 11 June 2005 2:33 am
"Financial Motives"-bizarre!- "Office Politics" In my opinion U.S.
celebrities have less and less influence on public opinion. This was a
very informative blog, thanks.
2. Beth left...
Saturday, 18 June 2005 9:31 am
"part of the wider semi state sanctioned ‘cash in and run’ phenomena that
is commonly observed in China, where by businesses are ‘allowed’ to operate
fraudulently until they draw too much attention, as long as they are
profitable and accelerate the Chinese economy, at which time they are
publicly admonished but are permitted to ‘disappear’ and set up a similar
business again."