P&G fined 6mln yuan over Crest's teeth-whitening ads   

The popular US toothpaste brand Crest, whose commercials claimed it could whiten teeth in one day, has been fined 6.03 million yuan ($964,200) for false advertising, the highest record of domestic punishment on such act, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

The fine was levied on Procter & Gamble in China, makers of the toothpaste. As of print time, the company had not released a statement, and could not be reached by phone.

According to an investigation by the Shanghai Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau, the person's white teeth shown in Crest's advertisement for its whitening toothpaste was produced by image processing software and it was not the actual effect of the toothpaste. Therefore, the advertisement was defined as false and the company should be fined 6.03 million yuan, said Miao Jun, an official in charge of the bureau's advertisement department.

Miao said that the punishment was in accordance with the Advertisement Law and the amount was based on the given proportion of its advertisement expenditure.

Miao added that using photoshop techniques to process images in advertisements is acceptable if the retouched objects are irrelevant, such as blue sky in a car ad, however, the overuse of this technique on the subject advertised is against the rules.

"The severity of the punishment shows that Shanghai authorities have enhanced law enforcement and increased their power of exposure, which could effectively protect customers' rights," Su Haopeng, vice dean of the Law School at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told the Global Times.

Su said that it could be a typical example for other local authorities to administrate the market and the high amount of fines could become a deterrent force to other products.

Insiders said that generally toothpaste is used for cleaning teeth and may contain some functions of acid proofing or desensitization. It is hard to whiten teeth.

"Many celebrities clearly knew the fake effects of the advertisement when they acted as spokesperson for the product," said Miao, adding that the actress in Crest's ads, Dee Hsu, from Taiwan, does not need to shoulder any responsibilities.

However, Su added that if a new amendment to the Advertisement Law is passed in the legislature, any spokesperson who knowingly appeared in a false ad will bear joint liability and be punished.