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It’s recently been announced by the body that oversees advertising in China that personalities or celebrities can’t endorse a product unless they have used it first.
How could it be any different?
The truth is in the west ad campaigns are full of famous people saying wonderful things about brands that they have never tried nor plan to try. It’s misleading at best.
On my travels in the west across Canada, The US and Europe, I have seen dozens of ads featuring personalities endorsing products that you just know they don’t use. Perhaps the worst examples are banks that use millionaire sportsmen to communicate rate based offers. If your earnings are in excess of $50m you don’t need a mortgage and the consumer knows you don’t.
In China this just wouldn’t happen. The country now has over 2 million households where net wealth is greater than $1m and of course, some are household names. The idea that the famous ones would promote a bank on rate is unlikely but not as unlikely as super thin TV and film stars eating full fat yoghurt or using cheap makeup they would never possess.
Chinese consumers are super brand aware and very, very cynical. In a straw poll of a group of young Chinese women this morning in Beijing I was actually laughed at for suggesting that a famous model would endorse a low cost, poor quality cosmetic brand in China. “Are you mad?” was one response. “They would lose their face forever”. Herein lies the rub. There is no self respecting Chinese celebrity who would sacrifice their own brand image for a short term financial gain from advertising. The concept of ‘face’ drives everyone here and no more so that those super thinnies and white skinned celebs who endorses products. They will only endorse something because they really do have that high value watch, car or cosmetic product and use it regularly. They really do drink that wine or wear that perfume. The Chinese internet chat is alive with stories of high profile drug using and adulterous celebrities, just as in the West, but it is also alive with comparisons of branded goods of all types, value and origin, along with stories of good and bad experiences. High profile endorsement is all part of the mix of the believability of the product but also the person. If it just doesn’t seem right in China not only will people be cynical but they will vent their cynicism on line. If you are in the firing line for criticism from 100 million or more consumers your career is probably dead in the water. No one will take that risk! Advertising in China is also much the better for the social impact of ‘face’ too! You could call it honesty but actually there is nowhere to hide in this high touch country so celebs think more than twice about what and why they are persuaded to endorse. I suspect enforcing the recent edict might be relatively straightforward.
