An ad for Pantene shampoo

"Cure your dandruff from the first time you use it" and "95 percent customers would like to recommend it to friends". These are just some advertisement lines for cosmetic products broadcast on TV across China. But in Shanghai, these ads have now been blocked for misleading exaggeration of their effects.

The Wenhui Newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Contrasting the pleasant after-you-use-it surprise with the depressing previous situation is the stock in trade of cosmetic ads. For example, in a TV ad for Pantene shampoo, the magic water changes the girl's hair from a shameful mass into a shining spectacle. Meanwhile, an ad for Clear shampoo boasts that "Dandruff never came back."

Another favorite method is "all the others thumb up". If you have ever seen the ad on Olay moisture cream on TV, you'll remember the tag: "95 percent customers would like to recommend it to friends."

In fact, these tricks are clearly forbidden in China's Measures for Management of Advertisement on Cosmetics, issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 1993.

Local government in Shanghai has informed the media to stop broadcasting these illegal ads on TV.

Brands involved include shampoo products: Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Clear, Hazeline, and cosmetics: Olay, Pond's and Garnier.

(CRI.cn June 21, 2007)