"Quickly give your intestines a bath," the广告 for Bishengyuan Changrun Tea, is probably familiar to many people. On TV, online, on buses, in elevators... advertisements are everywhere.
In fact, the regulation of health products can also be significantly influenced by consumers. Asserting rights is a prerequisite for protecting them. In the face of misleading advertising, deceived consumers should not suffer in silence but actively protect their rights using legal means and cooperating with regulatory departments to form a united front.
Facing regulatory difficulties, what is needed is positive interaction among regulatory departments, media, and consumers to form a regulatory chain of consumer reports, media advertisement reviews and exposure, and relevant department responsibilities for strict law enforcement. Only then can we wash away the deceptive gloss from Bishengyuan-like "myths" and create a safe and reliable health product consumption environment.
Light economic penalties and limited public criticism mean that administrative and public supervision of violations have become somewhat ineffective. This is why Bishengyuan has dared to spend 30% of its annual sales revenue—nearly two billion yuan—on exaggerated and false advertisements. Despite multiple checkpoints for advertisement regulation, food and drug regulation, and network information verification, there has been no effective restraint, causing much reflection.
Key point: The problems with Bishengyuan's advertisements have already involved regulatory intervention. In the three years before Bishengyuan went public, its advertisements violated regulations 23 times. The product's advertisements were even placed on the "blacklist" of Guangdong's Food and Drug Administration due to severe deception and misleading of consumers as well as exaggerated health benefits.
Despite repeated violations, punishments seemed mild. In places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, penalties often included warnings, bans on sales, or revocation of licenses; in Guangdong alone, Bishengyuan received 19 public warnings between 2007 and 2009. On the other hand, in some well-known online search engines, entering "Bishengyuan" brings up pages full of advertisements and positive information. Even after news broke about suspected illegal advertisements, some websites continued to publish promotional soft articles for the product while related negative news was deliberately or unintentionally "ignored" by search engines. (Editor: Song Xue)
Regulatory dilemmas need to be broken through by positive interactions between regulatory departments, media, and consumers.
Behind the bright advertisements lies a gray reality. According to the website of the National Food and Drug Administration, the product's function is merely to improve constipation; however, in advertisements, conditions such as bad breath, spots, acne, and even insomnia and forgetfulness have been included in the therapeutic scope. Its main ingredient, senna leaf, is regarded by medical experts as a laxative that requires strict control.
Actually, the problems with Bishengyuan's advertisements have already involved regulatory intervention. In the three years before Bishengyuan went public, its advertisements violated regulations 23 times. The product's advertisements were even placed on the "blacklist" of Guangdong's Food and Drug Administration due to severe deception and misleading of consumers as well as exaggerated health benefits.
Media supervision is an important method to increase the public cost and social pressure of violations. However, it is not uncommon for products suspected of false advertising to maintain intact corporate images in the media while continuing large-scale ad placements. Some online search companies and a few media outlets, while pursuing economic benefits, should weigh their social responsibility as public information providers.
On one side, there are frequent violations in advertisements and recurring "adverse reactions"; on the other side, there is Bishengyuan's sales miracle—selling 1.37 billion packets in 2011, equivalent to giving every Chinese person's intestines "a bath." This myth of profiting while violating rules comes from disproportionately low violation costs.
From the perspective of government departments, currently, China's food and drug regulatory authorities only have oversight over health product advertisements, while punitive powers belong to the industrial and commercial departments. Under the separation of regulation and punishment, it is difficult to form an effective deterrent. Moreover, in terms of regulation, health products lie in the gray area between food and drugs. This is the fatal flaw that makes Bishengyuan "indestructible."
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