The use of these extreme words such as "the strongest" and "ranked first" has been avoided by major advertisers and self-media bloggers, and it seems that it has become a consensus to be banned.
Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Guidelines for the Enforcement of Absolute Terms in Advertising", which provides a more detailed analysis and explanation on the use of absolute terms in advertising.
As soon as the "Guidelines" came out, it aroused widespread discussion. Some people asked: So the advertising limit words are a big misunderstanding?
1. Where do those banned limit words
come from?
You must have seen words such as "zui" and "微" on major platforms, right?
In order to attract users' attention, words such as "most" and "first" are used by many platforms and operators in titles or promotional words. However, in order to avoid sensitive words or avoid overly exaggerated publicity, many people no longer use these words directly, but use ** or homophonic words instead.
Words such as "most" and "first" seem to be defaulted as limit words prohibited by each platform. Where does this phenomenon come from?
According to the third item of Article 9 of the "Advertising Law", the use of absolute terms such as "national level", "superlative" and "best" in advertisements is prohibited.
The Regulations mentioned the three absolute advertising terms of "national level", "superlative" and "best". In addition, there are many common advertising limit words, such as: first, only, first , best, precise, top, absolute, exclusive, first, most advanced, etc.
Talking about these advertising limit words, many advertisers and self-media operators are in such a predicament: they are "one size fits all" banned from using terms such as "most" and "first" when publishing advertising copy on major platforms, and are forced to use * * or homophonic words instead.
Therefore, one of the reasons for this kind of phenomenon is precisely because the three absolute terms that are not fully listed in the Advertising Law have been extended by people, which has caused operators to be uneasy and uncertain about the wording, and thus chose the "one size fits all" approach. processing method.
In addition, the high amount of punishment has also become one of the reasons for everyone's concern. According to the provisions of Article 57 of the "Advertising Law", for acts that violate the prohibition of absolute terms in Article 9 of the "Advertising Law", the law enforcement agencies have The right to impose administrative penalties such as fines of more than 200,000 yuan and less than 1 million yuan on advertisers. As a result, operators who are worried about touching the minefield of extreme words show their talents and extend a variety of homophonic words to replace them.
However, judging from the "Guidelines for Law Enforcement of Advertisement Absolute Terms" issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation recently, it seems that there are not so many rules for those banned advertising limit words...
2.
Can all these limit words be used after the release of the "Guidelines"?
According to the news on March 20 on the official account of the State Administration for Market Regulation, "Shishuoxinyu", the State Administration for Market Regulation recently issued the "Guidelines for Law Enforcement of Advertisement Absolute Terms" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines") to carry out advertising absolute terms for market supervision departments. Provides guidance on the use of terminology for regulatory enforcement.
Figure | Screenshot from "City Talk"
According to the response of the relevant person in charge, the legislative intent of the third item of Article 9 of the "Advertising Law" is to prevent advertisers from exaggerating publicity, misleading consumers or derogating other operators. However, some local market supervision departments have a tendency of "one size fits all" and "simplification" in the process of supervising and enforcing the absolute terms of advertising, resulting in the phenomenon of "inappropriate punishment" in individual advertising administrative punishment cases.
In this regard, the "Guidelines" provides adjustment guidelines for the situations stipulated in Item 3 of Article 9 of the "Advertising Law", including "national level", "superlative", "best" and other terms with the same or similar meanings.
From the official response, it can be seen that there is a misunderstanding about the absolute terms of advertising, that is, unlike some platform regulations, there are not so many limit words in the original advertising law, and most of them are "national", "superlative" and "best". derived similar words.
Then, does the implementation of the "Guidelines" mean that the absolute terms of advertising can be used freely? the answer is negative. The "Guidelines" does not mean the relaxation of supervision, nor does it mean that the absolute terms of advertising are not restricted.
According to Articles 5 and 6 of the Guidelines, the following situations are not subject to the restriction of absolute terms in advertisements:
5. Under any of the following circumstances, the use of absolute terms in advertisements does not refer to the commodities promoted by commodity operators, and the provisions of the Advertising Law on absolute terms do not apply:
(1) Only expressing the service attitude or business philosophy, corporate culture, and subjective wishes of the commodity operator;
(2) Only expressing the goal pursuit of commodity dealers;
(3) Other circumstances where the content pointed to by the absolute term is not directly related to the performance and quality of the product promoted in the advertisement, and will not mislead consumers.
6. Under any of the following circumstances, if the absolute term used in the advertisement refers to the commodity promoted by the commodity operator, but does not have the objective consequences of misleading consumers or belittling other operators, the provisions of the Advertisement Law on absolute terminology shall not apply. Terms of use:
(1) It is only used for self-comparison of products of the same brand or the same enterprise;
(2) It is only used to promote consumption reminders such as the use method, use time, and shelf life of the product;
(3) Absolute terms are included in the commodity classification terms determined according to national standards, industry standards, local standards, etc. and the basis can be explained;
(4) Commodity names, specifications, registered trademarks or patents contain absolute terms, and advertisements use commodity names, specifications and models, registered trademarks or patents to refer to commodities to distinguish them from other commodities;
(5) The awards and titles assessed in accordance with relevant state regulations contain absolute terms;
(6) Under the circumstances of limiting specific time, geographical conditions, etc., expressing the objective situation of time and space sequence or publicizing factual information such as product sales, sales volume, market share, etc.
However, it should be noted that if the absolute terms of an advertisement fall under the circumstances stipulated in the above two provisions, but the authenticity cannot be proved, it will still be investigated and dealt with in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Advertising Law".
All in all, is the relevant content an advertisement or an absolute term for advertisement? Should it be punished? It is also necessary to analyze and judge in combination with the regulations in the "Advertising Law" and "Guidelines".
3. What is the significance of the Guide?
In addition to words such as "most" and "first" being replaced with homophonic characters, such phenomena widely exist on major platforms, such as Douyin, which was at the forefront of the storm last July.
Because of the saying that "TikTok blocked many keywords and caused the prevalence of homophonic stalks", the Douyin official not only issued a relevant statement, but also sorted out the irregular expressions that are frequently used, and expressed the hope that the majority of users can rest assured to create and standardize Expressions, reduce the use of non-standard expressions, and improve product capabilities in the future to strengthen prompts for non-standard expressions.
Figure | From the Internet (partial)
During the same period, the Weibo official also publicly launched a centralized rectification of violations of using "typos" such as homophonic characters and variant characters to publish and spread bad information on the platform.
Figure | Screenshot from Weibo
It can be seen from this that it is not wise to use homophonic words to avoid punishment by platforms or regulations, and major platforms should not manage platforms and advertising terms with the concept of "rather killing three thousand by mistake than letting one go".
For the platform side, using ** or homophonic words instead of absolute terms such as "most" and "first" in advertising can have the effect of avoiding supervision or preventing false propaganda from being exposed. Once these words are exaggerated or falsely used, it will have a negative impact on the reputation and image of the platform, and even cause the platform to be punished by the regulatory authorities.
But for users, this phenomenon may sometimes cause difficulties in understanding, and some users may not be familiar with the meanings of these ** or homophonic characters, resulting in poor information transmission or misunderstanding. In addition, the use of these substitute words will also affect users' perception of the real value of the product or service, making it difficult for users to distinguish which are real industry leaders and which are false and exaggerated publicity.
Generally speaking, using ** or homophonic words instead of absolute terms such as "most" and "first" in advertising can help the platform to avoid sensitive words and false propaganda to a certain extent, but it may also cause some difficulties in understanding and information opaque.
With the introduction of the "Guidelines", I believe that you will have clearer guidelines and cognition on the use of absolute terms in advertising. Words such as "most", "first", and "best" will no longer be ambiguous. Suddenly pale. Within a reasonable range that complies with the Advertising Law and the Guidelines, choose appropriate words for publicity and promotion according to your own actual situation and business needs, and at the same time ensure that the content of the publicity is authentic and credible, and avoid adverse effects caused by false publicity.