The new rules, released by the State Administration for Market Regulation and six other groups on Monday afternoon, will curb the lucrative world of celebrity endorsements, which has been plagued by high-profile scandals in recent years. The new rules prohibit celebrities from endorsing products through social media, TV ads, live streams or interviews. “Celebrities should consciously practice socialist core values in their advertising activities,” the rules state. “Activities must conform to social mores and traditional virtues.” The rules include internet influencers in the definition of celebrities, reflecting the increasingly powerful role that livestreamers and online personalities can play in promoting products. Live streams, like Chu Fei, left, are becoming increasingly influential in China © Qilai Shen/Bloomberg They also prohibit the promotion of “distorted aesthetics” and the use of images or effigies of party and state leaders or revolutionary heroes. Any products endorsed by a celebrity must first be thoroughly tested by the celebrity and test results must be recorded in advance, the new rules state. Companies should “conscientiously resist choosing illegal and unethical celebrities as spokespeople,” they added. The celebrity industry has been hit by a series of scandals. More recently, Li Jiaqi, a livestreamer, disappeared from public view for three months after displaying a tank-shaped cake in a June 3 video, which some analysts speculated Beijing had interpreted as an implicit reference to the anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen. next day. “If a business knows or should know that a celebrity has made wrongful political comments or other remarks that violate basic socialist values…it will…decide that the related advertisement hinders social stability and social public order,” the new rules condition.
