Guo Degang, a Xiangsheng (cross-talk or comic dialogue) phenom
last year for his original and innovative approach to the
traditional art form, has been widely talked over again in the past
few days, not about his fame as an artist, but the shame as the
image representative of a sub-par weight-losing product.
CCTV, China Central Television, held an evening show exposing
products of poor quality on Day for Protecting Consumers' Rights,
March 15, in which Zang Mi Pai You, or Tibetan Secret
Fat-Eliminating medicine, was made a typical example of low-quality
product. Its image representative Guo Degang's name was also made
sure to be heard on the national TV.
Guo Degang in an advertisement promoting Zang
Mi Pai You, or Tibetan Secret Fat-Eliminating
medicine.??
Guo responded promptly the second day on his blog, in which he
implied CCTV's pummel to him is a retaliation of his refusal to
take part in CCTV's Spring Festival Evening Gala. His blog entry
also revealed a number of misfits concerning celebrities as image
representatives of various products, immediately stirring up heated
discussion on the internet.
According to CCTV, the Tibetan Secret Fat-Eliminating medicine
began its large-scale advertisement bombard even before it was
registered in the Industry and Commerce Bureau, and Guo could not
shirk the responsibility in making the advertisement.
Guo said he tried the medicine himself, and asked a number of
his friends and neighbors to do the same thing, only to discover
the medicine is "pretty good," also noting he is among the very few
celebrities who actually try the products they shoot advertisements
for. He got reassured after he learned the product was
authenticated by authorities.
"So now you say the product doesn't work, then just go ahead ask
the authorities! Meanwhile, if the medicine is really as
inefficient as stated on CCTV, then how come our supervising
departments let it sell over the country for as long as one year,
and let it suck out the blood and toil of the taxpayers? Is that
how you serve the people? CCTV has slapped ruthlessly on the face
of the supervising departments!" said Guo on his blog.
Interestingly, the evening show on March 15 was jointly held by
CCTV and a number of supervising organizations including State
Administration for Industry and Commerce and Chinese Consumers
Association. A large-scale program was launched to take down the
health care medicine from shelves after the evening show.
"Logically, the administration for industry and business and
consumers association should know the product was disqualified
beforehand, and then provide this story to CCTV, so as to make the
evening show an exciting program. Then why did they decide to make
the move after the program was aired? Are they just waiting for
CCTV to make this story public? If this were true, what kind of
responsibilities should they take?" asked Editor Wang Xiaofeng from
Lifeweek Magazine on his blog, "now that they had known the product
has problems, why didn't they make a more instant move to reduce
the damage to the consumers? Even dereliction has been incorporated
as part of the entertainment today."
After learning the star giving misleading advertisements, most
netizens are dissatisfied and feel disappointed with Guo, but some
are also calling for a different approach to tackle the same type
of problems in the future. "I recommend relative government
organizations constitute some laws as soon as possible to regulate
stars making advertisements, so as to eliminate false ads that harm
and mislead consumers on a more fundamental and systematic level.
It should be law that everybody should abide by, rather than just
media playing the heroics to the people," said another blogger Ma
Muyang.
(China Daily March 23, 2007)
