Luxury ads banned amid wealth gap
- Source: Global Times
- [09:31 March 22 2011]
- Comments
The city has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or luxurious lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap.
Starting April 15, advertisers will be fined up to 30,000 yuan ($4,569) for running commercials that describe a product as "extravagant" or "supreme," the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce announced Thursday.
Businesses were also required to rectify ads that promote "excessive worship of foreign things," according to the administration.
It gave no details on which "foreign" things were deemed objectionable.
Such promotions are not compatible with "the values of Chinese society," it said.
Other forbidden words include "royal," "nobility" or "high class," which are widely used in Chinese promotions for houses, cars and wines.
The ban on excessive ad wording comes shortly after the city closed a 30 billion yuan ($4.56 billion) deal last Wednesday to build a fashion industry center in Tongzhou district in the hope to attract world famous luxury brands, according to the Beijing Times.
Chinese officials are trying to address issues of a widening income gap at a time when high inflation has put economic pressure on the country's hundreds of millions of low-income farmers and industrial workers.
AFP-Global Times
