Today in China

Last Wednesday, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) issued a ban on misleading breast-enhancement treatments and weight-loss products commercials.

In modern China, one of the only countries where you have beauty contest specific for girls who went though plastic surgery. The advertisement for having a perfect body are saturating the television and radio commercials.

The situation is getting so serious that it has drawn public anger. A good example is a breast enhancement treatment promising to transfer unwanted weight from the hips to the breasts. Sometimes, the products just dosn’t work… but sometimes it even causes harm to the customer. Bolibao, one of these “miracle” treatments was accused in a CCTV documentary of causing gynaecological problems and of having no effect at all.

A survey shows that 90% of the audience is supporting the ban. However, the sexual topic (a 40 years old mother is quoted saying that “Some of them are like pornographic movies”) of the advertisement is also affecting the audience and the shopping TV industry is expecting a loss of 20 percent. Commercials for such products cost up to 5,000 yuan (US$625) per minute.

Source
China Daily, 2006-07-21