China's market watchdog introduces new guidelines on endorsement in advertising

China's market watchdog has introduced new guidelines on regulating endorsement and ambassadorship in advertising in China, including banning any individuals from being brand ambassadors if they have not used the brand's products.

According to the latest guidelines established by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision (北京市市場監管局), the new guidelines aim to standardise advertising and financial investment and wealth management advertising activities in Beijing.

According to the guidelines, brands in China have to ensure its endorsers or ambassadors are promoting their products based on facts and relevant laws before publishing any ads featuring the endorsement. Meanwhile, endorsers must not recommend products or services that they have never used before. Furthermore, minors who are below age of 10 should not be adopted as advertising endorsers. Ads must also examine whether the endorsers are qualified, such as holding an approval document.

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Additionally, advertising within primary, secondary schools and kindergartens is strictly prohibited, except for public service advertisements.  Ads about medical treatment, pharmaceuticals, health food, medical equipment, cosmetics, alcohol, and beauty, as well as online game advertisements that are not conducive to the physical and mental health of minors must not be published on mass media that aim at minors.

Under the revised guidelines, advertisements for products or services which aimed at minors under the age of 14 must not contain content that induces them to ask their parents to purchase the advertised products or services, which may cause them to imitate unsafe behaviours. Off-campus training advertisements for primary, secondary schools and kindergartens are also not allowed.

In terms of online advertisements, internet pop-up ads must allow users to close them with a single click. Ads are not allowed to induce users to click on the ad content.

Most recently, China banned women from modelling lingerie on livestreams in China as part of an official law against spreading obscene material online. To bypass the law, online lingerie businesses have turned to some creative marketing strategies to continue meeting targets by hiring male models to promote women's lingerie in their livestream videos.

A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw on Douyin that, an online retailer @老婆大人的輕奢閨房 has featured a male model wearing lingerie in its videos, while a female model was promoting the shop's pajamas instead.

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