Ad Agency In China Fined For ‘Sexist’ Drink Campaign About Pleasing Husbands
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A marketing effort encouraging women to placate hot-tempered men by enhancing their looks—essentially the antithesis of what the Barbie movie is trying to teach—has left a bitter taste in the mouths of viewers in China. Now, the advertising agency behind the creative is being made to pay 480,000 yuan (US$67,000) for its involvement.
As reported by South China Morning Post, the Red Dates Culture Company has been fined by Beijing’s marketing supervision authority for violating the nation’s advertising laws and “good social customs.”
The video, screened mostly on digital screens in residential and office buildings, promoted a supposedly beauty-enhancing collagen peptide drink called Five Doctors that claimed to be anti-aging and anti-wrinkle, and contain ingredients that whiten the skin.
‘Hubby is mad at me, drink’: firms fined for misleading ‘sexist’ collagen ad https://t.co/7i9M4R37vj
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) August 7, 2023
“My husband is mad at me. Drink!” the women in the commercial proclaimed, as translated in the report. “Staying up late to watch a TV series. Drink!”
One actor stated, “I am one year older. Drink!” Meanwhile, the narrator asserted that she’d have to follow suit because “you all forced me to drink this!”
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— 王大å®å„¿ (@zhaojie25103518) June 15, 2023
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The spot claimed that a single bottle held about the same beautifying properties as six skincare facial masks.
The beverage—created by five women who said they had obtained PhDs from the Peking University Health Science Center—is not registered as a health food, so its effects are not clinically guaranteed.
Its “sexist” message about changing one’s looks to appeal to the male gaze has raised contention from China Women’s News, the flagship newspaper run by the All-China Women’s Federation, which called the campaign a step back in the progression of social values in the nation.
The feminist newspaper wrote that rather than focusing on women’s appearance, the brand should bring attention to “their abilities and career achievements,” as quoted by China’s Global Times.
Per South China Morning Post, members of the public have criticized the stunt as “disgusting” and a scheme to “mentally control women.”
Following backlash in June, Five Doctors apologized for running the campaign and promised to “adamantly correct our mistake.” The brand was fined 400,000 yuan (US$56,000) over the drink’s unverified claims.
The advertising agency in charge of the campaign has since been made to pay 220,000 yuan, and was fined an additional 260,000 yuan after the spot was created.
[via South China Morning Post and Global Times, images via various sources]
