Ad gloating mistress culture stirs up controversy in China

An advertisement of a foreign cosmetic brand portraying a woman gloating over an extramarital affair stirred up a heated debate over the spread of mistress culture in China, reports PTI. In the full-page advertisement in the form of a letter published in Southern Metropolis Daily in Guangzhou the "mistress" woman taunt wives to go and find Mr Right.

The flirtatious woman, who calls herself Mrs Zhang, asks Zhang's ex-wife to let him go and find a Mr Right of her own. "Excellent men only belong to a woman who can present herself well. May you wake up as early as possible and learn how to best present yourself. May there be no mistresses anymore," the ad reads. Fu Yisu, a public relations manager with Can- ton Fair E-commerce Co, said "is the newspaper promoting the success of a mistress? I was very surprised to read the ad. It poses a great challenge to traditional morality."

However, Li Hu, deputy market managing director of Southern Metropolis Daily, said the content of the ad had been carefully examined prior to its publication. "Actually, it is a commercial ad, promoting a cosmetics brand. The content is in line with related advertising laws," Li told China Daily. He said the ad is part of a series to be printed over seven days.

A marketing manager at Nanfang Daily, which administers Southern Metropolis Daily, said on condition of anonymity that a South Korean cosmetics company signed a contract with the newspaper to print the advertising series.

"Newspapers, which have seen sluggish market performance in the last two years, sometimes have to attract readers and clients by printing such stunning ads," she said justifying the ad. However, yesterday the provincial industrial and commercial bureau said it has ordered the newspaper and the cosmetic company to stop running the advertisement to prevent negative social impact. The commercial violates the advertising law as it "violates good social conventions", it said. Chinese newspapers' advertising revenue is expected to drop in the coming years, challenged by the increasing coverage of digital media, according to industry experts. According to the China Advertising Association, Chinese newspapers' advertising revenue dropped 7.3 per cent year-on-year in 2012.