On China's Legal Regulations Of Endorsements And Testimonials In Advertising

Endorsements and testimonials in advertising, which is also known as celebrity advertising, spokesperson advertising, image endorsement advertising, testimonial advertising, etc, refer to the advertising in which the quality, performance and effectiveness of the goods or services is recommended or proved in verba, endorsements, testimonials or other ways to reflect the views, trust, discovery or personal experience of the goods or services, by anyone such as public characters, professionals or institutions, and general consumers other than advertisers. In today's advertising- economic times, endorsements and testimonials in advertising have great positive significance: to some extent, they replace the consumers to complete the process of information gathering, reduce the consumers'risks of own experience, contribute to changing the consumers'disadvantageous situation of information, and improve the quality of the consumers'purchasing decisions; as highlight advantage and great credibility, they promote the identity of the goods or services, bring greater economical benefits for advertisers, and optimize the market competition. But at the same time, the overflowing false endorsements and testimonials in advertising result in serious hazards to our society, which do not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of the consumers and other business dealers but also disrupt the normal market order and affect the healthy development of the advertising industry, and even cause social credit crisis. Nevertheless the endorsements and testimonials in advertising in China's current laws have serious deficiencies and bring about a number of drawbacks. Therefore, it is necessary for China to establish a complete legal system of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. This paper is divided into four parts on the issues discussed:The first part mainly explains the general theoretical research on the issues of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The paper firstly explains the basic theory of advertising. Then, on this basis, the paper clearly defines the meaning and legal character of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, and points out the scope of the endorsers, and distinguish them with confusing related concepts. Finally, the paper analyses the unique role of endorsements and testimonials in advertising played in market economy, and reflects the institutional value of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.The second part mainly studies China's existing legal system of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, and on this basis, points out the existing serious deficiencies and drawbacks, including that the legislations are scattered in single laws and regulations, and the legal forces are inferior; that the legal responsibility of the advertising endorsers is set unreasonable, punishment mechanism missing; that the advertising monitoring system is imperfect.The third part studies on an international comparison for endorsements and testimonials in advertising. The paper mainly comparatively analyses the legal stipulations and restrictions on endorsements and testimonials in advertising in the United States and China's Taiwan region, and studies the related cases. Then the paper summarizes their definitions and obligations of advertising endorsers, their distributions of legal responsibility, and their advertising supervision models as a reference to build China's legal system of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.The fourth part brings forward some ideas of improving China's legal system of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. Aimed at the existing serious deficiencies and drawbacks of China's legal system of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, the paper puts forward some proposals mainly from the legislative and regulatory aspects by drawing on the advantages of international legal system.