China bans ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING - China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the government's latest move to purge the country's airwaves of what it calls social pollution.

Regulators have already targeted ads using crude or suggestive language, behaviour, and images, tightening their grip on television and radio a few weeks ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist party congress at which some new senior leaders will be appointed.

The latest move by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or SARFT, also bans advertisements for sexual aids such as tonics that claim to boost performance in bed.

The notice indicated that regulators were concerned about both lascivious imagery and outrageous or insupportable claims about some products' benefits or effectiveness.

"Illegal 'sexual medication' advertisements and other harmful ads pose a grave threat to society," said the SARFT notice, issued in the past week and posted on the administration's website.

"They not only seriously mislead consumers, harm the people's health, pollute the social environment, and corrupt social mores, but also directly harm the credibility of public broadcasting and affect the image of the Communist party and the government," the notice said.

China has already also issued strict rules for TV talent shows, including the banning of "American Idol"-style mass audience voting by cellphone text message or the Internet.

A few weeks ago, SARFT ordered 11 radio shows off the air in southern and central China for talking too explicitly about sex or for broadcasting material of an "extreme pornographic nature."

Regulators have also banned television shows about cosmetic surgery and sex changes, and a talent show that they deemed coarse.

© The Canadian Press, 2007