After the fermentation of the incident, Ma Yili took the "apology three consecutive" operation after the previous celebrity endorsement "overturned" - very sorry, has been terminated, and will pay attention in the future, but is an apology really enough?
| Author: Wang Zhening Yang Liqi
| Editor: Curry
Following problems such as unqualified cosmetics, "thunder" of p2p products, and fraud in health care product advertising, celebrity endorsements and brands have once again encountered "overturning".
Recently, the Shanghai police cracked a milk tea "routine franchise" contract fraud case, involving an amount of up to 700 million yuan. Ma Yili, the spokesperson of the brand "Chazhilan" involved in the case, was also pushed to the cusp of public opinion.
On May 15, Ma Yili Studio released a statement on Weibo saying that after the incident, it had terminated its contract with the brand side at the first time and apologized to the deceived consumers and franchisees.
Subsequently, Ma Yili forwarded this Weibo to apologize and said that he would be more cautious in his future work.
Ma Yili posted an apology statement on Weibo.
Although Ma Yili responded at the first time, and her attitude was sincere, many netizens did not seem to buy this usual operation of apologizing after the accident: "Is an apology enough?" ”
Guan Bing, a lawyer at Tianda Republic Law Firm, said in an interview with the Global People reporter that in the Case of Ma Yili, the victims were mainly franchisees rather than consumers, and in further investigation by the police, if it was determined that Ma Yili was not aware of fraudulent activities, there was no relevant basis for her further accountability or recovery of advertising fees. But morally speaking, if she and her team can provide support for the victims' rights, it is a means to reduce the degree of damage.
Milk tea shop join scam
I believe that many people have known the milk tea brand "Tea Zhilan" for the first time through the recent "Ma Yili apology" hot search. In fact, the choice of Ma Yili as a spokesperson is also an important part of the brand's huge scam.
News reports on the incident.
Founded in 2013, Chazhilan is currently a brand under Shanghai Weixiang Restaurant Management Co., Ltd.
According to media reports, in December last year, Wang opened a tea Zhilan brand store in Shanghai People's Square, and hired "childcare" to queue up to buy milk tea for a long time, and created false flowing water, creating a scene of brand store business booming, attracting customers to queue up, and finally attracting foreign investment.
Almost at the same time, the Shanghai police targeted Cha Zhilan. Through data analysis, the police found that a large number of milk tea shop franchised merchants were "abnormally shut down", which may be suspected of economic crimes.
Subsequently, after investigation, the police found that Jin, Wang and others set up a catering company to obtain illegal benefits, and set up a network department, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments within the company.
At the same time, the personnel involved in the case created a number of false and well-known brand milk tea investment websites on the Internet without authorization, designed and published investment advertisements with the words "brand franchise", and attracted potential franchisees to contact.
After the platform was completed, they acquired or registered more than 50 milk tea brands such as "Huadiandian" and "Tea Zhilan", and bragged about the brand from beginning to end through various publicity channels.
The first trick is to hire operators to sell franchise business to the outside world, among which there is no shortage of common phrases such as "well-known brand products", "one-stop service for the whole process", "big data scientific site selection", "investment and franchise to make steady profits", etc.
The so-called "investment consultants" also cooperated with the operator's words and exaggerated sales, claiming that the daily turnover of each store was not less than 10,000 yuan.
In addition, they also place advertisements on major websites, from the origin of raw materials to the tea making process, which have been blown out of the sky.
・Tea Zhilan's promotional copywriting.
Since the situation of offline stores is the most real, criminal gangs then recruit people to play "customers" in major part-time groups, queue up in front of the store to create a false prosperity scene, and then shoot videos and put them on major platforms, and the hired "childcare" can earn 40 to 80 yuan per person per day.
In order to eliminate the concerns of franchisees, they not only copied the investment authorization letter, but also invited the well-known actor Ma Yili to do endorsements.
According to reports, the victim, Ms. Gao, was attracted by the "perfect" brand promotion and paid a franchise fee of 100,000 yuan after a field trip to Shanghai in May 2020. Ms. Gao found that after the money was paid, the company completely "ignored" the franchise store, and eventually the business was dismal and had to close.
Like Ms. Gao, there are not few franchisees who have been brought into the pit by the scam, and the case is currently under further investigation. While cooperating with the public security organs' investigation, spokesperson Ma Yili has inevitably endured public opinion's questioning and accountability.
The "Waterloo" of endorsement careers
According to reports, in this fraud case, many victims said that it is precisely because they believe in the spokesperson Ma Yili that they are not suspicious of the brand.
Ma Yili can gain the trust of the public, but also because of the good image she has established in the past. She has played many deeply rooted roles, such as Ziwei in "Huan Zhu Ge Ge 3", Charlene in "Struggle", and Li Mei in "Marriage Defense War".
In addition, since 2003, she has participated in public welfare activities and served as a "Chinese Love Ambassador". Later, in 2011, she took a public welfare photo to call on the community to pay attention to children with leukemia. In 2015, UNICEF officially appointed her ambassador to China.
Since the divorce in 2019, Ma Yili has been relatively low-key, in addition to participating in the movie, less appear in the public eye, but this time for unexpected reasons on the Weibo hot search list first.
As an actress with national popularity, her image is favored by the brand side.
In 2017, Ma Yili was selected as the image ambassador of the skin care brand "Klitina" because of her "positive and upward strength and unyielding spirit of independent women", which is in line with the brand culture; at the beginning of this year, she became the first image spokesperson of the mother and baby brand "Bei Qu"; in April, she signed a contract with the Kangming brand, and became the image spokesperson of the brand's off-grid lighting products because it conformed to the brand positioning of "pursuing a healthy lifestyle".
Part of Ma Yili's previous endorsement.
There is no doubt that before the "Cha Zhilan" fraud incident was exposed, Ma Yili was deeply loved by brand owners, especially women, home and mother and baby brands, and brought many positive effects to the brand.
However, her endorsement career encountered "Waterloo" on milk tea. After the incident quickly fermented, Ma Yili took the "apology three consecutive" operation after the previous celebrity endorsement "overturned" - very sorry, has been terminated, and will pay attention in the future.
Netizens' attitude towards this also explains the seriousness of the matter, and many people said: "I hope that all celebrity endorsements can be responsible before, rather than apologizing when something happens!" ”
What can be done beyond an apology?
Celebrity endorsement "rollover" is not once or twice. Previously, the p2p industry collectively "exploded", and many well-known stars were in the "minefield".
According to the brokerage China combing, since 2014, the star artists who were once involved in the endorsement and explosion p2p platform were Yang Di, Wang Han, Du Haitao, Huang Xiaoming, Fan Bingbing, Liu Xiaoqing, Lang Lang, Zhao Yazhi, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Tang Guoqiang, Zhang Tielin and others.
Their image has become an important means of decorating the image and obtaining market credibility of financial products suspected of illegal fundraising, ignoring risks and misleading investments.
Previously, Wang Han endorsed the p2p wealth management product "love money into" overturned.
However, the follow-up treatment of problems with celebrity endorsement products or services always seems to be thunderous and rainy, and the losses borne by celebrities are really limited compared to the damage caused by their endorsements.
Judging from public reports, in addition to being pushed to the cusp of public opinion in a short period of time after the incident, celebrities issued apologies and said that they would actively cooperate with follow-up, while some artists even directly coldly handled them in the case of not being a big trend in the case of rights protection.
This time Ma Yili endorsed the milk tea overturned, she reacted in time, apologized, cooperated, introspected, and the process that should be taken after the "overturning" was quite a lot, but was the end of the incident also an apology? In this regard, the "Global People" reporter interviewed Guan Bing, a lawyer at Tianda Republic Law Firm.
Global People: What responsibility do you need to bear if the general celebrity endorsement product goes wrong? What else might be held accountable and impactable on Ma yili after the incident?
Guan Bing: According to the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law, the responsibilities required for celebrity endorsement products are generally divided into two types. One is administrative liability, that is, if the spokesperson has not used the goods or services he endorses, or if he knows or should know that the advertisement is false and still makes recommendations and proofs, he will confiscate the illegal gains and be fined 1 to 2 times the income. The other is civil liability. If it is a false advertisement for goods or services related to the life and health of consumers, or where the advertising spokesperson knows or should know that the advertisement is false, causing losses to consumers, it shall bear joint and several liability with the advertiser.
In this case, the victim of the fraud crime involved in the milk tea shop was mainly the franchisee, not the consumer. Whether the advertising spokesperson should bear other legal responsibilities remains to be further investigated by the police. If the spokesperson is unaware of the fraudulent activity, there is no legal basis for further liability or recovery of advertising fees.
Global People: What obligations should celebrities fulfill before endorsing brands?
Guan Bing: According to the provisions of Article 38, Paragraph 1 of the Advertising Law, the celebrity needs to actually use the product or accept the service before endorsing. In addition, the current legal provisions do not further stipulate the screening of celebrity endorsements and the supervision and verification obligations during cooperation.
Global People: Ma Yili also said in the statement that if there are other franchisees who have not yet defended their rights, they can also send private messages to the studio, and she will assist in defending their rights. Specifically, what can she and her team do?
Guan Bing: This case involves criminal fraud, and from the perspective of cooperating with the public security investigation, Ma Yili and his team are obliged to submit evidence or clues to the public security organs for the purpose of investigating the crime. For the civil rights protection acts of other franchisees, under the current legal framework, Ma Yili and his team did not cooperate with the legal obligations of civil rights protection.
However, because celebrities have extensive social visibility, influence and appeal, and their endorsement behavior has objectively led to the expansion of "damage", from a moral point of view, providing victims with rights protection funds or other help can be regarded as a means for Ma Yili and his team to reduce the adverse impact of the incident.
Global People: In recent years, celebrity endorsement overturning incidents have emerged in an endless stream, but the results of the handling are often not resolved, will the relevant laws tighten the supervision of celebrity endorsement products?
Guan Bing: When China's Advertising Law was revised in 2015, corresponding provisions were made for celebrity endorsement behavior. However, in judicial practice, it is more difficult to truly hold advertising spokespersons accountable. The reason is that, according to the current provisions of the Advertising Law, except for special goods, advertising spokespersons bear joint and several liability and need to "know or should know" about false advertisements, but in practice, it is difficult to verify the "knowing or should know" of celebrities.
In recent years, celebrity endorsement rollover incidents have emerged in an endless stream, bringing extremely bad social impact. There are high calls for further improvement of the relevant legal system and administrative supervision system.
Global People: In the case of celebrity endorsement and live streaming with goods, what is the difference between the responsibilities of celebrities after the product has a problem?
Guan Bing: Compared with celebrity endorsements, the nature of celebrities' live streaming with goods is more complicated, and whether their behavior constitutes the identity of "advertising spokespersons" or other subjects in the Advertising Law needs to be analyzed according to their specific behaviors.
In addition, in November 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Online Live Broadcasting Marketing Activities, which stipulates the legal liability of online live broadcasters, clarifying that online live broadcasters should perform the responsibilities and obligations of business operators in accordance with the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and those that constitute commercial advertisements should also perform the responsibilities and obligations of advertising publishers, advertising agents or advertising spokespersons according to specific circumstances.