Duck Neck was fined 600,000 yuan. Can vulgar marketing and low-level mistakes be avoided?

There have been quite a few advertisements punished in the past two days. First, Juewei Duck Neck was fined 600,000 yuan, and then China Fortune Land Development was fined 1 million yuan for using an incomplete map of China in its advertisement... Why did these things happen, and how can they be avoided?

These two things tell us:

• Don’t engage in vulgar marketing ; it’s risky to touch upon eroticism.
• Don’t make stupid mistakes, remember the complete map first!

【Vulgar Marketing】

The word "vulgar" is explained in Baidu Encyclopedia as follows: "Vulgar content mainly refers to content that is low-brow, ridiculous, vulgar, and makes people depressed, rogue, and decadent..."

Recently, a piece of news about Juewei Duck Neck being fined 600,000 yuan for its advertisement made headlines and was reported by People's Daily Online, Xinhua News Agency, Beijing News and other media. It also became a hot topic on social networks . The content of the advertisement not only violated the Advertising Law, but also was boycotted and disliked by netizens. I won’t go into detail about the specific incident, but Juewei Duck Neck used borderline erotic content in its 2017 Double Eleven promotional advertisement…

Of course, the official also apologized, but it was obviously a bit too late.

If there were no dissatisfaction from netizens or no punishment from management departments, perhaps marketing creative personnel would still think the idea was good? Look at the deformed Tmall LOGO made with the word “肉” (meat), plus the copy “No tricks, just cooking with heart”. It took some thought, but the direction is wrong. No matter how much thought you put in or how many communication links you use, it will be useless and counterproductive.

What is vulgarity and what cannot be used in advertising has been clearly defined in the seven ministries’ campaign to clean up and rectify vulgar content online:

In fact, this matter has been brewing for a few days, and I think it is still necessary to talk about this kind of marketing method again.

Why did Juewei cause outrage and get fined?

First, the product has nothing to do with pornography

Generally speaking, whether it is direct or implicit, the products of erotic marketing are at least related to it, such as sex toys, which is the most direct, and underwear products, which are also common. There are also swimwear, perfumes, accessories, etc. The characteristic of this type of product is that it has brand associations with eroticism and does not require any additional language.

( Durex official Weibo released a poster on Christmas Day 2017)

It’s a bit disgusting to think about connecting duck neck with eroticism. This approach of lowering the brand seems a bit low-brow, or it seems that it has not been thought about at all, but just wants to have an eye-catching "creativity".

A food brand uses a gender-bending style to attract users and has no connection to attract attention. Topics are traffic , and low prices and discounts are used to attract user conversions . Ordinary consumers will not stop buying because their advertisements are punished.

But this is the saddest thing in the marketing industry. They will do anything to attract attention, even if it has nothing to do with eroticism. However, if a company is labeled as "bottomless" and "vulgar", etc., it will slowly ferment and amplify, which will undoubtedly have a more far-reaching impact on the brand, and this impact will slowly be transferred to the product. This is worth learning from and thinking about by more brands. Be cautious and don’t engage in erotic marketing casually!

Second, mistaking disgusting and corny things for fun

Some companies always want to have some connection between their brand and hobbies to attract attention, and everyone will smile at each other as if they understand everything. But where is the fun in this kind of content?

Some media and netizens commented that it was insulting to women. Indeed, the entry point, visuals, and copy of the advertisement all had such hints and guidance. It said something but seemed as if nothing was said. This kind of "mystification" became a "vague" sense of mystery in the hands of experts. However, when the product and the tone of the advertisement are not clearly related, and there are intentional hints and guidance, it seems a bit too much, for fear that people will not understand the copy, and then add a picture that triggers malicious associations.

Is it really true that marketing cannot be done well without touching on erotic content?

Think about a duck neck brand, who are your customers and what do they like? Don't define the tone of a marketing campaign based on the "interests" of a marketer , a boss, or someone else.

Not all brands are suitable for erotic marketing, and of course not all marketers can successfully manage an erotic marketing campaign. If you are not careful, you will not only violate Article 9, Paragraph 8 of the Advertising Law, which states that advertisements must not contain "content that is obscene, pornographic, gambling, superstitious, terrorist, or violent." The important thing is that the strategy before the advertisement may be wrong. Your brand has nothing to do with pornography, and your users don’t like such content at all. Do you really understand your users’ preferences?

In fact, this is not just a problem for Juewei Duck Neck. For example, CK has had a similar experience before. It has placed many advertisements with male and female models showing their skin. The content incited public sentiment and attracted boycotts from the media and industry organizations. In order to express their protest, CBS and NBC withdrew CK's advertisements. Women's anti-pornography organizations also opposed such advertisements... However, despite the "negative" effects of repeated boycotts and withdrawals, CK's products have been selling like hot cakes. This is also a mature marketing strategy of itss.

Of course, we can see that those companies that skirt the line may be punished, but they will make enough money from the eye-catching effect, and some products will also be converted. It is these "cases" that lead more practitioners to "take risks", thinking that they also want to try something "big", what if they become popular?

This incident reminded me of previous vulgar cases such as body travel ("Post-95 girls use body travel to trigger event marketing , is it right or wrong?"), the Uniqlo incident ("Are those who take advantage of the situation crazy? We saw your shamelessness outside the fitting room !"), naked marketing on the streets of Beijing ("Nude marketing is popular, such vulgar marketing is not worth learning!"), and the subway stripping incident ("Comment on the subway stripping incident: where is the bottom line for misguided marketers?").

Bottom line and conscience are important in any industry.

In fact, there are many ways to attract attention during the Double Eleven promotion. Look at those cases that have gone viral. Even a poster can spark a topic. This does not require self-righteous "creativity", but rather insight into users, products, and the market...

【Low-level error】

In fact, using the wrong map may seem like a small mistake, and of course it has almost nothing to do with strategy or creativity, but we will find that planning and execution are connected.

According to cases published by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce , Shanghai China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. designed advertisements on high-speed train display media and in-flight magazines. The map of the People's Republic of China used in the advertisement does not fully and accurately represent the national borders, which damages the national dignity and interests.

Moreover, in subsequent related advertising designs, the parties still failed to represent my country's territory completely and accurately even though they were aware of the errors in drawing the advertising map. They objectively continued their illegal acts, allowed harmful consequences to continue to occur, and violated Article 9 of the Advertising Law.

In November 2017, the Shanghai Jing'an District Market Supervision Bureau imposed administrative penalties, confiscating 88,000 yuan in advertising fees and imposing a fine of 1 million yuan.

This is considered a design error, but both the advertising company and the brand are responsible. Ignoring the Advertising Law will result in punishment. This punishment has not been discovered or exposed by netizens or the media before, otherwise the impact on the brand would be even wider.

For example, Audi previously put a map of China at its global conference (read: "Audi used the wrong map of China. Why would even Alibaba make such a low-level mistake?"), which immediately allowed netizens to discover the territorial issues in the map, which directly turned into a corporate crisis. Of course, in addition to Audi, other media and companies such as Hunan Satellite TV and Alibaba have also made such low-level mistakes.

Improper use of maps will not only attract attention, questioning and boycotts from netizens and the media, but this time, more companies will pay attention to the fine of 1 million for incorrect use of maps.

Although it seems that the use of maps has little to do with products and brands, most of them are used to "show off" the coverage capabilities of their own brands, products, and services, or their market share. However, using a map incorrectly will not only bring economic losses, but more seriously, if errors are made in marking key territorial issues, it will also cause dissatisfaction among netizens with the brand. Moreover, it also exposes problems with the company's internal management processes, which are not rigorous and professional.

Therefore, please remember this matter about the map of China!

You can search for relevant specifications for specific usage, which is a simple reference: when using solid lines of different thicknesses to represent land boundaries and coastlines, the boundary lines of the South China Sea islands must be indicated, and solid line segments of the same thickness as the land boundaries must be used; the South China Sea islands and important islands such as the Diaoyu Islands and the Chiwei Island must be indicated.

In view of the above two cases, one is about "vulgar marketing" and the other is because of "low-level mistakes". The two may have nothing in common, but both were punished recently. According to the "Advertising Law", any company doing marketing in China must be reasonable and compliant. Don't be lucky. Even if you have a lot of money, this kind of game of "being punished" to attract attention is not worth promoting.

A few tips:

1. Study: Whether a company is large or small, it should organize advertising, marketing, public relations and other related personnel to study the Advertising Law;
2. Reflection: Think about what type of marketing is suitable for your brand. Every company should have its own bottom line.
3. Practice: To discover the preferences of users, which allows front-line marketing personnel to improve their knowledge and understanding of marketing methods, rules, gameplay, and cases, enhance their capabilities and put them into practice.

At this point, there is a red line in front of vulgarity and low-levelness. If we are not careful, we may go in the wrong direction and touch the red line. But if we have the ability, why not change the direction and change the way of playing?

The author of this article @魏家东 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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