Playing the & quot;health card" do not touch the red line of the law

"Health is the first wealth of life." The richer life is, the more people believe in this Emerson quote. PwC data shows that from 2015 to 2020, the size of China's big health market will increase from less than 7 trillion yuan to 13 trillion yuan. According to the current compound annual growth rate of 13%, it is expected that by 2025, the market size of China's big health industry is expected to reach 24 trillion yuan.

Knowing the common psychology of people thinking about health, many businesses are looking for business opportunities around health. However, many products in the market under the banner of "health" are really for the health of consumers, and are they really helpful to consumers' health? The answer is not certain.

Recently, the media reported that there are some "sweat suits" on the market that claim to use new technology such as "technology silver coating" and can "burn fat efficiently" The "sauna suit"weight loss suit" and other products, but medical health experts pointed out that these products trying to achieve weight loss by making people sweat a lot is not reliable. There is no direct relationship between increased body temperature and increased basal metabolic rate, and it is impossible to achieve fat loss by sweating alone. The body sweats mainly to cool down, and more than 98% of the sweat is water, with a small amount of urea and lactic acid, and almost no oil. It is true that increasing muscle sweating may reduce weight, but this is due to dehydration of the body, and after replenishing water, the weight will be quickly restored. The so-called "technology silver coating" and other technologies claimed by the merchants, in fact, there is not much technical content, adding such a coating, the purpose is heat insulation and insulation, wind and water resistance, the principle is similar to the punching bag. To put it plainly, such clothing is to let people "cover sweat". Medical health experts warned that sweating sports can easily lead to dehydration, causing electrolyte disorders, so the weight loss is not worth the loss.

Compared to sports health, people are more concerned about eating health. But in the diet health, the business of the foolish set more. Sugar-free food, coarse food cookies, zero-fat drinks, non-fried food. All kinds of health as a selling point of the food is proliferating. The experts in diet and health said that most of these so-called "health food" is just a self-appointed name of the business, the health effects of publicity in the concept of hype. Take coarse-grain cookies for example. Many coarse-grain cookies claim that their products are rich in dietary fiber, beneficial to human health. According to the "Prepackaged Food Nutrition Labeling General Rules", claiming "dietary fiber source or contains dietary fiber", dietary fiber content should be ≥ 3 grams / 100grams or ≥ 1.5grams / 100ml; high or rich in dietary fiber or good source, should reach the "source" more than twice as much. But the media investigation found that most of the coarse-grain cookies on the market in the label logo does not have the above-mentioned mark, can not determine the dietary fiber content. And in fact, many coarse-grain cookies just add a bit of bran to refined white rice flour, with very little dietary fiber content, which is not really coarse-grain cookies at all. Moreover, some companies add fat to the cookies to increase the lubrication and enhance the taste, but this increases the fat intake of the consumer, contradicting the low-fat health pursuit of coarse grains.

There is nothing wrong from the marketing point of view to take advantage of people's health concerns to create new selling points with new concepts. However, it should be clear that the basic concept of the "health card" played by enterprises and businesses must be scientific, and the products put into the market need to be verified through experiments and supported by data to achieve the desired effect. From the aforementioned examples can be seen, the reality of some businesses against the above principles, production and sales of so-called health products focus only on the concept of marketing, regardless of the most basic scientific principles, and even fictitious product function facts to mislead consumers. This is not only against the integrity of the business, but also undermines the normal order of market operation, and should be condemned and punished.

Businesses rely on the concept of hype, false propaganda sometimes will indeed gain considerable revenue in a short period of time, but in the long run this is a very harmful behavior. The concept of excessive hype, on the one hand, will mislead consumers, damage the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, on the other hand, also make consumers on this concept of hype antibodies, attention and trust is increasingly reduced, the people gradually away. Moreover, in the concept of hype between peer enterprises often hostile to each other, denouncing and even in court, thus worsening the competitive market environment. In addition, because the concept of hype is often ahead of its time, which can easily lead to market overdraft, seriously harming the future development of the industry.

Playing the "health card" for false propaganda, may also constitute consumer fraud. China's "Advertising Law" provides that advertising should be true, legitimate, shall not contain false or misleading content, shall not deceive, mislead consumers. In the face of some businesses hype health concepts to make improper benefits of marketing behavior, the functional departments of the government to take action, continue to innovate ways and means of supervision, increase law enforcement, strengthen the popularization of science and publicity, and effectively maintain good market order and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Of course, as far as enterprises are concerned, for the long-term development of the plan, or the mind in the right way, good products, honest business, not to touch the red line of the law to be punished, resulting in a large loss of property reputation, it is too late to regret. (Hu Libiao)

Source: China Quality News