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Women slam ineffective control on beauty ads

"The media organizations which carry these commercials should also be punished."

Li Jao-huan, secretary-general of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) and three women's groups yesterday charged government agencies with ineffectiveness in enforcing bans on misleading beauty commercials.

Huang said the women's groups observed weight-loss commercials that ran in the media from January to April this year and reported several deceptive commercials to the Department of Health and eight local health departments, but received a lukewarm response.

According to Huang, 20 out of 39 official documents these groups filed to the health department, the National Communication Council, the Fair Trade Commission and the health executives in numerous cities and counties turned out to be "missing."

Taiwan Women's Link secretary-general Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬) said that none of their calls were answered, even when they made phone calls to the health department's hotline.

She added that the Taipei County Government's health department even refused to attend to the Link's case because the group was unable to offer visual images as proof.

Li Jao-huan (李兆環), secretary-general of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights, said when the association reported a misleading weight-loss food commercial by Sotoso, the firm was only fined NT$30,000 per advertisement.

Li said it was impossible to curb commercials of this kind if the fine remained so small.

She suggested that the government suspend the ads and the business certificates of those firms which disregard regulations.

"The media organizations which carry these commercials should also be punished," Li said.

Claiming to be a victim of a misleading weight-loss product, Ou Yi-ling (歐怡伶) showed her lower leg at the press conference.

She said her leg muscles no longer had any elasticity. She claimed this was a result of Chinese medicine she bought after watching a deceptive food advertisement.

Huang said she would promote amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) and the Cosmetics Sanitary Control Act (化妝品衛生管理條例) to provide strict-er supervision on beauty-related commercials.

The health department yesterday issued a warning about misleading beauty commercials. It suggested people should not listen to, believe, buy, take or recommend any products that seem "magical."
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