Artists, celebrities and community responsibility

From the advertisement "1 jar of 70ml bird's nest contains up to 30g of A5 bird's nest", or "1 candy is equivalent to 1 plate of vegetables", it can be seen that, for profit, they have disregarded the harm that their false advertising can cause to society, when those are products related to human health. Unfortunately, most of them are artists, famous people with influence and have won a lot of sympathy from the public because of their achievements and dedication..

This is not the first time that KOLs (influencers), orThe artist advertised falsely and then apologized on social media.Previously, artists such as Cat Tuong, Quyen Linh, Hong Van or Miss Mai Phuong Thuy, all had to apologize when they were condemned by the community for advertising "exaggerating" the effects of certain types of milk, functional foods...

After a period of “whitewashing”, everything went back to normal. Artists and KOLs continued to advertise or livestream to sell products on social networks as if nothing had happened.

So recently, when many famous artists simultaneously advertised products such as whitening lozenges, "pure" bird's nest, or vegetable candies with "exaggerated" effects like miracle drugs, they immediately encountered a reaction from public opinion, when consumers discovered that the effects of these products were not as described by the artists and KOLs.

Consequences of perfunctory punishments

It is a fact that cases of KOLs or artists who advertise falsely have been administratively fined with fines that are considered very light, compared to the remuneration of hundreds of millions of dong, even billions of dong from advertising contracts for brands on social networks. Therefore, this situation has been repeated continuously for a long time.

Returning to the case of the Rot Sisters group, Quang Linh (owner of the Quang Linh Vlogs channel) and Hang Du Muc were highly praised by the online community and have a large number of fans. Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien is also a beauty with many achievements and won the sympathy of netizens. However, last week, all three were criticized by the online community for their false advertising scandal.

The vegetable candy product advertised by Quang Linh and Hang Du Muc groups caused fierce controversy because Quang Linh advertised too much: "One candy is equivalent to a plate of vegetables". Hang Du Muc was also continuously criticized for giving false information about the advertised products such as bird's nest, eye-brightening candy...

Consumers exposed the scandal by releasing the results of vegetable candy testing at the Technical Center for Quality Measurement 2, showing that 100g of candy contains only 0.51g of fiber. Meanwhile, 100g of water spinach also contains about 1.5g of fiber. So to get the amount of fiber in 100g of water spinach, you need to eat more than 300g of candy (about more than 90 pieces), equivalent to 3 boxes, with a price of 450,000 VND.

The image of Quang Linh's group experiencing the vegetable garden - the raw material for producing vegetable candy - was also dug up and criticized by netizens. The vegetable candy was introduced as being produced at the ASIA LIFE factory, the company's representative said that there was no farm or vegetable garden, only a production line. The controversial candy product was also produced according to the "order" of the Basket Sisters Group Joint Stock Company...

Someone discovered on the e-commerce platform 1688 in China that there was an image of a vegetable candy product similar to the vegetable candy advertised by the "Basket Sisters" group, but the price was much cheaper.

This information made the online community feel deceived and they called for a boycott of the group "Sisters in a basket" of Quang Linh and Hang Du Muc. Not to mention the economic damage and loss of trust, the first thing that will be directly affected is people's health if they believe in using these types of advertising products.

The more admired, the more responsible to the community

On social networks, celebrities (KOLs) often have millions of followers. Therefore, the content they post on social networking platforms has a huge scope and influence. Even their words or actions become trends, followed by many people. While most consumers do not have enough time, knowledge or experience to verify product quality; most of them put their trust in the reputation of businesses, product brands, trust in the confirmation of authorities and the reputation of the celebrities who introduced them. Therefore, celebrities play an important role in advertising and consuming products and they can also be the indirect cause of damage to consumers if the product is advertised incorrectly, especially for products that directly affect human health.

Vietnam has no shortage of regulations related to advertising, such as the Advertising Law, the Cybersecurity Law and the decrees guiding their implementation. False advertising can result in fines of tens of millions of dong, forced corrections, and even bans from advertising. However, violations have not decreased because the fines are not enough to deter celebrities, because the value of advertising contracts they receive is much larger.

Therefore, public opinion suggests that it is necessary to clearly define the responsibilities of celebrities when advertising products and severely punish acts of false advertising and advertising that exaggerate the product's benefits. It is not enough to stop at administrative fines or requests to remove violating content, but it is time to take stronger measures, from "banning" artists and KOLs who repeatedly offend to increasing criminal sanctions for serious violations.

Advertising is a part of professional activities, bringing legitimate income to artists and celebrities. However, profit cannot be put above professional ethics. An advertising contract can bring a large income to artists, but if they lose trust once, they will lose everything. Therefore, artists and KOLs need to show their responsibility to the community before deciding to accept advertising for a product, especially products directly related to human health and life./.