China has announced a ban on radio and TV advertisements touting extravagant gift-giving in another push to crack down on corruption, state media said Wednesday.
Advertisements for luxury items such as watches and gold coins promote “incorrect values and helped create a bad social ethos,” China’s TV watchdog, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said in a report according to Xinhua News Agency.
The ban comes in response to repeated calls by the authorities for people to practice thrift and shun extravagance and waste especially ahead of the lunar new year celebrations when giving of gifts to officials has been tradition, an official from SARFT said.
“Some television and radio stations have broadcast advertisements with ‘gift giving’ slogans such as ‘premium gift choice’, ‘a gift for leaders’ and ‘giving honour to your superiors’, and the ads have been for a wide range of products including famous watches, rare stamps and commemorative gold and silver coins,” SARFT said in a statement published on its website.
“These ads transmit an incorrect value system and can easily foster a harmful social atmosphere,” the statement went on.
President-in-waiting Xi Jinping has launched a campaign to root out corruption which he said could “lead to the ruin” of the ruling Communist party and the Chinese nation, says the Financial Times.
