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Truth in advertising lost on real estate giant
By Wang Yong |
November 1, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NO sooner had China's Cabinet called upon the whole nation to be honest and credible than one of China's largest property firms sought in vain to defend its controversial sales advertisement that many customers claimed had violated the law.
On October 19, Premier Wen Jiabao presided over a conference of the State Council (China's Cabinet) to address, among other things, the glaring lack of honesty and credibility in China today.
"Lack of honesty and credibility not only disrupts economic and social progress, destroys market and social order, and damages social justice, but also harms the public interest and undermines national and civilizational progress," the State Council warned.
But this warning appears to have fallen upon deaf ears when it comes to one of China's largest real estate firms by market value, whose motto is "To treat customers with the honesty of a gentleman."
On the evening of October 27, the company as represented by Mr Tang Kezheng, the top customer service manager in Shanghai, failed utterly to honor its own corporate creed, to say nothing of professionalism. He was joined by a subordinate and a company attorney.
The company was asked by several dozen families (including my wife and I) who have bought apartments to explain the basis of the company's prediction - in a widely circulated sales brochure and on the site of sales - that a new subway line would likely open in 2013 near one of its residential projects in suburban Qingpu District.
Convenient access to a subway line, of course (if were true) would make the property more desirable, justifying a better price. And it was partly on that basis of transport that many families were encouraged to buy.
However, the company failed miserably to produce anything that qualified as legal evidence.
Both China's Advertising Law and Real Estate Advertising Law require an advertiser to provide accurate and authoritative sources for its advertising claims. In the case of predictions, there must be solid indicators, no wild guesses.
Here are the two "accurate and authoritative" sources Mr Tang and his colleagues provided to questioning buyers: 1. Information on Baidu Baike (literally meaning the encyclopedia of Baidu.com, China's leading search engine); 2. Phone conversations with "certain" officials of Qingpu District, where the residential project is located.
The attorney explained that he had searched Baidu.com and found a prediction of the subway likely opening around 2013.
A joke
He also said that in his phone conversations with "certain" Qingpu officials, they were at once very positive about the new subway. But he admitted there was no formal documentation.
What a joke.
Anyone can edit any item on Baidu Baike at any time, as with many other online free encyclopedias. By no means can such an online item qualify as an accurate and authoritative source as required by the law.
Still, out of curiosity, I searched Baidu Baike yesterday morning and found this: The new subway line has been listed among Shanghai's subway projects for 2010-2020. Nowhere was 2013 said to be the year of opening. At any rate, this property giant should have written a caveat in its sales advertising that the prediction was based on Baidu Baike. It did not.
The attorney's so-called "phone conversations" with Qingpu officials is also a joke.
Before offering these two "accurate and authoritative" sources, the trio led by Mr Tang had presented a written letter of reply to the home buyers, which categorically denied any charge of advertising frauds.
Maybe from the steady and skeptical expression of the home buyers, the trio themselves could see how ludicrous it was to have resorted for legal grounds to a questionable search engine and purported phone calls with anonymous officials.
During the October 27 meeting with home buyers, which was videotaped by home owners, Mr Tang called the complainants "mafia and hooligans," according to several home owners.
The trio even refused to sign the written reply they had promised. They only did so after home buyers called the police and then reluctantly, in the presence of police, put their names to the reply - with illegible signatures.
On October 29, the home buyers went to another office to ask Mr Tang to apologize for calling them mafia and hooligans, but he would not meet them. Some home owners went yesterday to a higher company office to complain, and were told that the company needed another week to collect "accurate and authoritative" evidence to back up its controversial advertising claims about great transport in the near future.
If they had this reliable information, why did they not produce it immediately? Well, let us give them another week to produce their credible evidence.
This property giant has a famous slogan: "Let architecture sing the praises of life."
Indeed, the giant often excels in architectural design, but life is not as cold as bricks and mortar. It's about dignity.
Known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street," Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture, that future business leaders can avoid scrutiny from his office by approaching their careers with integrity and a dose of humility. Indeed, arrogance and dishonesty don't pay.
On October 19, Premier Wen Jiabao presided over a conference of the State Council (China's Cabinet) to address, among other things, the glaring lack of honesty and credibility in China today.
"Lack of honesty and credibility not only disrupts economic and social progress, destroys market and social order, and damages social justice, but also harms the public interest and undermines national and civilizational progress," the State Council warned.
But this warning appears to have fallen upon deaf ears when it comes to one of China's largest real estate firms by market value, whose motto is "To treat customers with the honesty of a gentleman."
On the evening of October 27, the company as represented by Mr Tang Kezheng, the top customer service manager in Shanghai, failed utterly to honor its own corporate creed, to say nothing of professionalism. He was joined by a subordinate and a company attorney.
The company was asked by several dozen families (including my wife and I) who have bought apartments to explain the basis of the company's prediction - in a widely circulated sales brochure and on the site of sales - that a new subway line would likely open in 2013 near one of its residential projects in suburban Qingpu District.
Convenient access to a subway line, of course (if were true) would make the property more desirable, justifying a better price. And it was partly on that basis of transport that many families were encouraged to buy.
However, the company failed miserably to produce anything that qualified as legal evidence.
Both China's Advertising Law and Real Estate Advertising Law require an advertiser to provide accurate and authoritative sources for its advertising claims. In the case of predictions, there must be solid indicators, no wild guesses.
Here are the two "accurate and authoritative" sources Mr Tang and his colleagues provided to questioning buyers: 1. Information on Baidu Baike (literally meaning the encyclopedia of Baidu.com, China's leading search engine); 2. Phone conversations with "certain" officials of Qingpu District, where the residential project is located.
The attorney explained that he had searched Baidu.com and found a prediction of the subway likely opening around 2013.
A joke
He also said that in his phone conversations with "certain" Qingpu officials, they were at once very positive about the new subway. But he admitted there was no formal documentation.
What a joke.
Anyone can edit any item on Baidu Baike at any time, as with many other online free encyclopedias. By no means can such an online item qualify as an accurate and authoritative source as required by the law.
Still, out of curiosity, I searched Baidu Baike yesterday morning and found this: The new subway line has been listed among Shanghai's subway projects for 2010-2020. Nowhere was 2013 said to be the year of opening. At any rate, this property giant should have written a caveat in its sales advertising that the prediction was based on Baidu Baike. It did not.
The attorney's so-called "phone conversations" with Qingpu officials is also a joke.
Before offering these two "accurate and authoritative" sources, the trio led by Mr Tang had presented a written letter of reply to the home buyers, which categorically denied any charge of advertising frauds.
Maybe from the steady and skeptical expression of the home buyers, the trio themselves could see how ludicrous it was to have resorted for legal grounds to a questionable search engine and purported phone calls with anonymous officials.
During the October 27 meeting with home buyers, which was videotaped by home owners, Mr Tang called the complainants "mafia and hooligans," according to several home owners.
The trio even refused to sign the written reply they had promised. They only did so after home buyers called the police and then reluctantly, in the presence of police, put their names to the reply - with illegible signatures.
On October 29, the home buyers went to another office to ask Mr Tang to apologize for calling them mafia and hooligans, but he would not meet them. Some home owners went yesterday to a higher company office to complain, and were told that the company needed another week to collect "accurate and authoritative" evidence to back up its controversial advertising claims about great transport in the near future.
If they had this reliable information, why did they not produce it immediately? Well, let us give them another week to produce their credible evidence.
This property giant has a famous slogan: "Let architecture sing the praises of life."
Indeed, the giant often excels in architectural design, but life is not as cold as bricks and mortar. It's about dignity.
Known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street," Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture, that future business leaders can avoid scrutiny from his office by approaching their careers with integrity and a dose of humility. Indeed, arrogance and dishonesty don't pay.
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