Chinese authorities fine firm over Dove chocolate ‘situationship’ ad

SHANGHAI – The Chinese authorities have fined a company around US$120,000 (S$154,000) over an advertisement it created for American chocolate brand Dove that featured a woman in a “situationship”, saying on Nov 12 it promoted the “wrong views on marriage and relationships”.The video, first posted online in August, showed a woman whose “situationship” – a romantically ambiguous partner – delivered her chocolates after her boyfriend ignored her.The clip caused a stir online in China, with some social media users saying it promoted infidelity, prompting Dove to issue an apology.Zongzheng Food – the company that created the ad and which operates a Dove store on Chinese e-commerce platform Kuaishou – was fined 800,000 yuan (S$154,000) in October, Shanghai authorities said on Nov 12.The ad “packaged being unfaithful in a relationship as a ‘sweet experience’, promoting wrong views on marriage and relationships and violating good social customs”, the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration said in a statement.China is facing a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade, and in response the authorities have heavily promoted traditional family structures.Marriage registrations from January to September were down 9.8% year-on-year, reaching just 4.6 million, data from China’s civil affairs ministry showed earlier in November.Dove, which is owned by US corporation Mars, said in its apology in August that the ad did not follow its content review process and was “clearly inappropriate”.Dove “bears responsibility” for all content posted to its official channels, the chocolate brand said on social media platform Weibo.The Chinese authorities have previously rebuked companies for platforming romantic relationships deemed inappropriate.In May, Chinese consumer electronics company Oppo said it “severely punished” multiple executives over an ad joking about infidelity, which the authorities publicly condemned. AFP