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BEIJING: Chinese manufacturers and regulatory officials are not the only ones being publicly criticised for their roles in the country’s ongoing tainted milk powder scandal.
Renowned athletes Guo Jingjing and Liu Xiang have also been taken to task for their “involvement”.
Olympic diver Guo and hurdler Liu were celebrity spokespersons who had endorsed Yili brand dairy products, which had been tainted with melamine.
Melamine has been blamed for killing at least four babies and making more than 53,000 children sick.
Since the scandal broke, various parties have been put under the microscope, including celebrities.
An online poll asked if celebrity spokespersons should bear responsibility for endorsing tainted dairy products. Some 34 per cent answered “yes”, saying that the celebrities “had betrayed the trust of the people”.
One netizen suggested that celebrities should donate all their endorsement earnings to those who had fallen ill after consuming the tainted milk products.
One celebrity who has done just that is actress Xue Jianing, who said she would also visit the babies in hospitals.
Pop group The Flower Band said it would “perform for free during community events”. But others were less contrite.
Actress Jiang Wenli argued that her own child had consumed the same brand of milk powder that she had endorsed “and had no problems”.
When asked what she would do to help babies who had fallen ill, Ms Jiang said she “did not have much time to think about the issue”.
Actress Jiang Qinqin argued that she should not have to bear any blame as the milk powder she had endorsed was not the same type that had caused the children to fall ill.
Comments like these prompted outrage among consumers.
So much so that some, such as Chongqing’s Ms Huang Zhengyu, wanted to sue the celebrities for what they say is “misleading and bogus advertising”.
Ms Huang slammed these celebrities who only “think of money” while her lawyer suggested that public trust had been violated when celebrities used words such as “I trust” and “quality guaranteed” in their endorsements.
But actor Zhang Guoli — whose actress wife Deng Jie had endorsed the Sanlu brand — said that it was unfair to blame celebrities as the issue was one “involving food safety, not product endorsement”.
Mr Zhang also pointed out that since “virtually every television station had aired the advertisements, shouldn’t they too have to bear part of the legal responsibility?”
Others who tried to avoid blame include actress Li Yuchun, who noted that her endorsement period had already ended, “so any questions relating to quality should be directed to the manufacturers”.
Some analysts agree that it is unfair to hold celebrities responsible as they could not have had detailed knowledge about the products they endorsed.
Indeed, some of the celebrities are victims too. Table tennis champion Wang Nan, whose national team had endorsed the Yili brand, said that she was a victim as she had consumed large amounts of Yili dairy products.
The raging debate over whether celebrities should be blamed for endorsing harmful products highlights the need for celebrities to be more socially and morally responsible.
Celebrities now realise that to maintain a positive public image, they will have to think twice about the products they endorse before they start thinking of lining their pockets.
Indeed, this greater caution is a good thing, given that celebrities have endorsed products ranging from sweetened drinks and cookies to instant noodles and pharmaceutical products such as calcium tablets, constipation pills and even aphrodisiacs.
The tainted milk scandal also highlights the legal uncertainties in a country that has witnessed phenomenal economic progress in the last two decades.
Even though some consumers maintain that celebrities should bear part of the blame, legal experts say this is unlikely as current laws only hold companies responsible.
In the midst of the still-unfolding fiasco, consumers are demanding more veracity in celebrity endorsements.
Consumer groups argue that like in America and Europe, China should put in place a stricter verification process to ensure that Chinese celebrities are bona fide consumers of the products they endorse and not merely over-exposed, over-glorified and over-paid salespersons. - TODAY/ra
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