Celebrities must check verity of goods they hype

The State Administration of Industry and Commerce has said 10 classic cases of suspected violation of the "strictest ever" Advertisement Law, that took effect from September, have come to light and some of them involve celebrities promoting dubious products. Comments:

The public cannot rely on the moral quality of celebrities in deciding whether or not to promote a certain product. On their part, celebrities, who earn big money from endorsements and advertisements, should consider the legality of a product before promoting it; they should also keep in mind their social value and influence. Only when they treat endorsements as an activity supervised by law can dubious advertisements using star power stop.

cnhubei.com, Sept 29

The loopholes in the pre-amended advertisement law have been plugged. The new law specifies the legal conditions celebrities must abide by while promoting a product. Still, the monitoring and supervision mechanisms should be further strengthened and strictly implemented.

Economic Information Daily, Sept 29

It is important to spell out the details of the punishment an individual or company will get for advertising dubious products. Not only people, including celebrities, promoting dubious products, but also ad distributors should be held responsible for misleading ads. If related officials had strictly scrutinized commercials beforehand and strengthened the accountability mechanism, fewer celebrities would be endorsing substandard products today and the number of misleading advertisements would have shrunk.

Gmw.cn, Sept 29