Charles Liu, Crest Toothpaste was recently given the largest fine for false advertising in Chinese advertising history.
Earlier this month, the Shanghai Bureau for Industry and Commerce fined the makers of Crest Double-Action Whitening Toothpaste RMB 6.03 million (around $964,200). The bureau took issue with a slogan used in a commercial stating that, “after using this for just one day, your teeth will immediately turn whiter.”
The Director of the Shanghai Bureau for Industry and Commerce, Miao Jun, said that he could accept the use of special effects in commercials, but not if they resulted in the public being misled. Miao was very pragmatic in what he expected of a toothpaste: “The purpose of toothpaste is generally for cleaning. Sometimes, it is used to ward off bacteria or other sensitive things, but whitening is in fact something that is very hard to accomplish with toothpaste.”
He explained further:
To use a car commercial as an example, there is no problem if they want to use special effects to make the sky bluer or the clouds whiter to make a better scene. However, in a commercial for a daily household product in which they openly use techniques to make the target product have fake results, then they must pay the price as dictated by the law.
If nothing else, this story illustrates the proper way to use “duang”, the latest in Chinese internet lingo. “Duang” literally means the artificial gleam coming from a smile, and is often accompanied with a sound effect.
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