Shanghai plans to set up a citizen advisory panel to prevent
advertisers from erecting billboards featuring scantily clad women
and other images, which have the potential to offend.?
The move follows a series of complaints since the end of last
month over a huge billboard in the Xujiahui area displaying the
bare thigh of a Hong Kong pop star selling skin-care products.
The Shanghai-based www.eastday.com reported on March 20 repeated
public complaints about an advertisement billboard featuring the
bare thigh of the famous actress Li Caihua.
The billboard was removed after authorities discovered that the
space had been approved for a public service advertisement but a
switch had taken place.?
To prevent such problems in the future the Shanghai Industrial
and Commercial Administrative Bureau is preparing to set up a
council including residents, legal experts and industry
representatives this year to weed out potentially offensive and
misleading advertisements.
"It's sometimes difficult to decide whether the content is
improper because different people have different standards," said
the bureau's advertisement division chief, Miao Jun.
State regulations require that female images used in advertising
must be "healthy and positive" and help foster sound morals among
young people -- rules that are somewhat vague.
More rigid internal guidelines existed in the industry in the
1990s. They prohibited women shown in ads from wearing skirts or
shorts above the knee. But insiders said the rules are seldom
enforced today as society had become more open-minded.
In most cases bureaucrats make individual judgments about
whether an image will offend the public.
Ads that may offend public taste are not always sexually
suggestive. In a case last year a little boy in Putuo District was
frightened by a cosmetics ad on TV, which featured a woman who
appeared to zip off her skin. The advertisement gave the boy
nightmares and his mother complained to the consumer commission but
to no avail.
Xu Hong, director of the Shanghai Advertisement Monitoring
Center, said that while some complaints had been raised offensive
advertising was not a significant problem.
The advisory council could make it even less of a problem.
The group will be used to arbitrate on questionable material. It
will also help authorities make judgments about exaggerated claims
and misleading statements in advertising for medical services and
equipment and health tonics.
(Shanghai Daily April 6, 2006)