Legal Commentary by Attorney Jin Bingyi

Advertising violations are, in fact, already not uncommon at present. For example, in accordance with China's Interim Provisions on the Release of Food Advertisements, food advertisements may not explicitly or implicitly suggest that they can replace breast milk, nor may they use images of lactating women or infants. However, we can frequently observe violations in many milk powder advertisements.

　　In the face of numerous illegal advertisements, the reasons are as follows: first, insufficient regulatory efforts; second, unclear responsibilities of relevant responsible persons; third, difficulty in implementing penalty measures.

The author believes that to regulate the advertising market, first, supervision should be strengthened. In cases where industry and commerce authorities are unable to achieve comprehensive supervision, whether the Consumer Council can be entrusted with part of the supervision and reporting responsibilities to assist industry and commerce authorities in supervision; second, relevant responsible persons in illegal advertisements shall bear corresponding legal liability based on their fault. For example, celebrities who明知 or should have known about false propaganda but still endorse the advertisement shall bear corresponding legal liability, and even joint and several liability together with the advertiser and publisher; third, penalties for illegal advertisements must be strictly imposed in accordance with the law, truly ensuring that violations are rectified and law enforcement is strict.