Dove Fined 800,000 Yuan for Ad That Made Cheating Look Sweet

The operator of the "Dove Official Flagship Store" on short-video platform Kuaishou was fined 800,000 yuan (US$112,000) in October after Shanghai's Putuo District market regulators found that an advertisement for a chocolate gift box promoted unfaithful relationships and went against good social morals.

The clip posted by Shanghai Zongzheng Food Co Ltd, which runs the store, included the line: "I've been asking my boyfriend for the Dove colorful gift box for a long time and he still wouldn't buy it for me. Today, while my boyfriend was away, I shared the post with someone I was seeing on the side; he drove two hours to bring it over. So sweet."

Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation said the video packaged disloyalty in a relationship as a "sweet experience," promoted misguided views on love and marriage, and violated good social morals.

The Putuo District bureau imposed the administrative penalty in October under China's advertising law.

The advertisement had already caused a stir in August, when Jiemian News reported that many internet users had complained the Qixi Festival video made them uncomfortable and said it pushed seriously flawed views on relationships.

Late on August 25, Dove's official account apologized, saying the clip had been created and posted by a third-party store operations team that had not strictly followed the brand's review process. It called the wording "clearly inappropriate" in its expression and value orientation, took the video down and pledged tighter training and content checks, The Paper reported.