Index – Foreign – Politics has taken hold of Durex, young Chinese are outraged



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Condom maker Durex was fined more than 100,000 euros yuan in China. The British company withdrew the party with ads on Chinese social media, especially Weibon. The Shanghai City Market Authority made its decision in July, but the local press just got the news. The punishment was justified by the local government on the grounds that

the ads contained “pornographic, misleading, horrifying and violent” messages.

However, the Chinese loved Durex’s witty and provocative ads that 1.2 billion times they searched the net. Not even popular with the Shanghai government’s decision, social sites are full of outraged comments:

However, how do we want to educate sexually enlightened youth if even a condom ad is banned? Next time, let’s ban sexually explicit jokes too. Or do we need a party license in the future to buy a can of cola?

Condom ads draw attention to the importance of protection. Therefore, the original intention of the company was correct. Still, which is worse: condom ads or unintended pregnancies?

I know our society is not open to sexuality, it is often embarrassing to even mention it. But how do we want to multiply when we are asexual?

By the way, most users agree that it is not Durex’s marketing strategy that has become more offensive, but rather that the political environment in China has changed. Some pointed out that the authorities had taken over the manufacturer due to the relaxation of the one-size-fits-all policy and the two-child policy that replaced it. Critics say the government would also be fighting the aging of society with this: The one-size-fits-all policy in effect between 1979 and 2015 allowed only one child to be born in most families. The Chinese could have planned a bigger family, but in this case they lost the subsidies or the state forced them to pay taxes. The family with several children thus became a status symbol that only the best forms could afford. As early as 2013, the central government in Beijing opened up to more lenient regulations to support families with two children, resulting in deregulation in most provinces.

Source: pandaily.com

Source: pandaily.com

And in 2018, the government also decided to relax the two-child policy, which moves toward complete deregulation of birth control.

There are economic reasons for this, above all. The so-called “4-2-1 family pattern” denoting four grandparents, two parents, and one child has become a common phenomenon in China. Since three generations live in a household, the burden on active wage earners is increasing.

Furthermore, the one-child policy has accelerated the aging of society, posing an even greater threat to future generations. As life expectancy at birth also increases,

In China, the number of people over 65 will increase by 100 million every 15 years, and by 2050, this age group will expand to 330 million.

Articles on Durex’s punishment also note that Chinese youths associate a sense of sexual freedom with a condom company. The British company’s witty words have undoubtedly made the brand popular, suggesting that Durex has 3.2 million followers on Weibon. Although this is not necessarily a large number, assuming there are almost 1 billion Chinese Internet users in China. However, the article notes that Japanese condom maker Okamoto is only liked by 170,000.

However, it would be an exaggeration to say that the British company with your ads started a kind of sexual revolution in China. This is because young people in Asian countries are moderate buyers of content on the shield. Durex has also created a joint ad with the HeyTea tea brand: graphics showing a condom and a soda on a poster. “Every drop counts” they were told with a catchphrase that buyers found in poor taste. HeyTea apologized to its consumers in a statement last spring about the announcement.

(Cover image: Shutterstock)



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