Bird’s nest has become a popular tonic in recent years, and the main publicity audience is gradually segmented, focusing on young people, pregnant women, etc. Chinese industry insiders pointed out that the focus of bird’s nest on specific consumer groups such as pregnancy and childbirth is a manifestation of the industry’s upgrading, but the merchants also have improper publicity in the marketing process.
The Chinese bird’s nest brand Yan Palace recently mentioned in its promotion that pregnant women can make babies “smarter” by eating bird’s nests, which is considered to be in violation of relevant laws and regulations. The reporter noticed that Yan Palace has removed the above expressions from the Chinese product promotion page and customer service introduction, but much other bird’s nest brand promotion-related content can still be seen on the e-commerce platform. For example, the “Yihuichun” instant bird’s nest customer service stated that eating bird’s nest can promote the baby’s brain development; the Chinese bird’s nest’s statement that “the mother’s consumption of bird’s nest during pregnancy helps the baby’s brain and intellectual development” is also kept on its page.
Some Chinese lawyers said that bird’s nest is not currently listed as a health care product in China and cannot be promoted as having health benefits. As for whether bird’s nest publicity to pregnant mothers will mislead consumers, it depends on whether there is a scientific basis. Zhong Kai, director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, pointed out that “the saying that the bird’s nest contains sialic acid, so the inference that pregnant women eat it can promote the intellectual development of the fetus is logically sophisticated.”
The Bird’s Nest Market Professional Committee of the China Urban Farmer’s Center Federation (referred to as the “National Bird’s Nest Committee”) stated that around the chaos in the industry, relevant standards may be issued in the second half of this year to regulate the production and publicity of the industry.
Yan Palace’s promotion on pregnancy and childbirth is controversial
With the rising awareness of nourishment among young Chinese groups and the improvement of the ability to deliver fresh food and cold chains, bird’s nests are gaining momentum on the Chinese nourishment track. The “White Paper on China’s Bird’s Nest Industry in 2019” shows that the overall market size of bird’s nest has reached about 30 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30%, showing a trend of rapid growth. According to data from Tmall, during the pre-sale of Double 11 in 2020, the sales volume of bird’s nest supplements increased by 168% year-on-year. In the process of rapid growth, the lack of regulation in China’s bird’s nest industry has also begun to emerge.
The Chinese bird’s nest brand “Yan Palace” has recently caused controversy due to its promotional language. In May 2021, some media reported that Yan Palace’s multiple advertisements contained slogans such as “I heard that it is better to eat bird’s nest during pregnancy” and “Pregnant mothers can eat it with confidence”. At the same time, the e-commerce customer service replied that edible bird’s nest “helps to conceive”, “enhance the immunity of pregnant women”, “avoid illness during pregnancy”, and make the baby “smarter” and other publicity words appeared, but the product category of bird’s nest is food. Rather than health products, the propaganda of efficacy is not legal.
The reporter called Yan Palace several times from May 19th to May 27th, and the operator said that they would relay relevant questions. However, as of press time, Yan Palace has not yet given a specific response.
At the same time, the reporter found in the official flagship store of Yan Palace on Tmall that there are currently many product links in Yan Palace that contain the word “pregnant woman”, but the product details page has not yet seen the above functional promotional language. When responding to questions about bird’s nest nutrition, e-commerce customer service no longer bluntly stated the functional content mentioned in the aforementioned report. However, the customer service staff sent screenshots of conversations with some consumers to reflect the effect of eating bird’s nests among pregnant and childbirth populations. The feedback in the screenshot includes “Eating bird’s nest during pregnancy is effective”, “Baby is fat and healthy after birth”, etc.
Fang Liping, a lawyer from Zhejiang Zeda Law Firm, believes that customer service is a one-to-one communication, and its introduction is subjective and does not fully represent the brand and business. Consumers should have the ability to make independent judgments when making purchases, and they should not blindly believe the effects described by customer service. If non-food-applicable propaganda statements are used in the propaganda process, or there are behaviors that guide consumers, specific issues will be analyzed in detail and other legal constraints will be adopted. If there is evidence that the official customer service statement is a fixed format required by the merchants or a term that has appeared in the public publicity interface of the brand, it is official publicity. At the same time, the consumer feedback screenshots used by it should obtain the consent of the other party, and shall not infringe the other party’s privacy and portrait rights.
The reporter noticed that similar phenomena also occurred in Yan Palace’s propaganda controversy before. In 2018, Yan Palace responded to the media in response to the fact that historical celebrities ate bird’s nest for longevity and beauty in adverts in 2018 to suggest “efficacy”, saying, “Yan Palace advertising has never directly said that there is any effect. And the consumers have their own feelings through advertising.” As for the former spokesperson Carina Lau’s advertisement for ” My maintenance secret – a bowl of bird’s nest every day”, Yan Palace said that this was what Carina Lau said when she spoke, not as agreed in the contract. Regarding Hong Kong, Singapore, China, “more than 80% of pregnant women are eating bird’s nest”, Yan Palace explained that the relevant data was “stringed” by Yan Palace agents and sales staff, and the headquarters had promptly stopped it after discovery.
Bird’s nest propaganda focuses on the pregnancy and childbirth population
Behind the controversy of pregnancy and childbirth publicity, a major trend of the bird’s nest industry in the e-commerce platform emerged-focusing on the maternity group. On June 1, when the reporter searched for “bird’s nest” on the Tmall platform, it was found that in order of sales, 9 of the top 20 products contained the word “pregnant woman” in the title. The product forms include bird’s nest, instant bird’s nest, freshly stewed bird’s nest, and Conceptually add bird’s nest brewed beverage. When searching with “bird’s nest pregnant women” as the keyword, the Tmall platform showed about 29,600 related product links, and the JD platform showed about 15,000 related product links.
Regarding the reasons for the promotion of the population focusing on pregnancy and childbirth, some Chinese merchants said that the word “pregnant woman” was added for the purpose of attracting traffic; some merchants said that the crowd focused on bird’s nest is because fresh stewed bird’s nest has no additives, which is relatively pure for pregnant women; Some businesses claim that because bird’s nest is a traditional Chinese tonic, Chinese consumers have the habit of feeding pregnant women with bird’s nest tonic.
Ma Zengjun, Chairman of the Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee, said that instant bird’s nests appeared on the market in the past few years, and the scene of consumers eating bird’s nests is no longer confined to high-end catering and home cooking. The number of younger Chinese generations such as pregnant women and young girls who eat bird’s nests has begun to increase. In the process, some people who eat bird’s nests have gradually become those who sell bird’s nests. Around 2015, the number of bird’s nest micro-businesses increased, and the rapid development has also promoted the upgrading of the industry’s product form. Fresh stewed bird’s nest with better taste has appeared, attracting more young Chinese consumers.
Ma Zengjun pointed out that from an industrial point of view, some people would refer to the morphological update of bird’s nest from dried bird’s nest, ready-to-eat bird’s nest to freshly stewed bird’s nest in recent years as bird’s nest 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 era. “From the perspective of sales trends, it is the Chinese consumer group continues to get younger.” Different consumer groups have different needs for supplements. Therefore, at the current stage of development, bird’s nest practitioners no longer focus only on product form innovation, and begin to focus on subdividing sales groups. Maternity is one of the angles.
Some businesses advertise that bird’s nest helps babies’ mental development
Some bird’s nest merchants advertise that eating can help babies’ mental development in the context of focusing on maternity populations, Chinese businessmen’s bird’s nest promotional language has become more targeted. In addition to the previously controversial Yan Palace, there are also many brand promotional expressions that urgently need to be standardized.
One of the biggest expressions of hidden dangers is the promotion of efficacy as a non-health food. In the publicity expressions of bird’s nest products related to the pregnant and childbirth population, some brands directly use functional expressions in the product promotion interface, such as “Eating bird’s nest helps infants develop their brains and intelligence”. There are also brands that are not advertised on the page, but use functional sentences when responding in the customer service background. For example, “Yihuichun” instant bird’s nest customer service introduced that eating bird’s nest can promote the brain development of babies. In this regard, the reporter called Fuzhou Shengse Media Co., Ltd., the main operator of the brand, on May 31, but when the other party heard the inquiry about the promotion, he said that he cannot reply as he was busy, and then hung up the phone.
In terms of promotional language, some bird’s nest e-commerce companies are not ignorant of relevant Chinese laws and regulations. A Zhongque instant bird’s nest sold by the flagship store of Renhe Pharmacy stated on the page “China’s new advertising law stipulates that absolute and functional terms should not appear on all pages. This shop has been investigating and modifying them. The absolutized and functional terms on all pages will be invalidated before this statement, and will not be used as a reason for compensation.” But so far, the statement that “the mother’s consumption of bird’s nest during pregnancy helps the infant’s brain and intellectual development” remains on its page.
Regarding why only the statement was added to the page, but the contradictory functional statement was not deleted, on May 31, the reporter called the e-commerce operator Renhe Pharmacy (Beijing) Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. according to the contact information stored on Tianyancha. The operator said that the e-commerce team is working in another office and will help with inquiries. As of press time, no update response has been received.
“Businessmen use a statement to indicate that the absolute and functional terms on the page are all invalid, and at the same time, they allow consumers to see propaganda terms that contribute to intellectual development. This is a kind of marginal behavior.” In Fang Liping’s view, the law has already stipulated that food cannot promote health benefits. Simply adding an additional statement on the page does not have the effect of complete exemption. If you want to truly avoid illegality, you should delete inappropriate promotional language.
The reporter noticed that even if there is no blunt statement about the health benefits, many bird’s nest product pages also include a legal statement. For example, the top-selling bird’s nest brewed beverage brand “Pao Xiaoyan” on the Tmall platform, you can see at the end of its product page, according to the authenticity requirements of product promotion in Article 55 of the “China Consumer Rights Protection Law” and the “Chinese Advertising Law”, “all the graphics and information on this page are for reference only, and the product ingredients and effects are subject to the product packaging or instructions.”
The staff of “Pao Xiaoyan” told the reporter that in the long-term business process, the merchants definitely want to recommend their products, but it is difficult to be 100% rigorous in the promotion. The attached statement is not only a suggestion given by the platform, but also to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts with consumers. Regarding the description of the “Zhi Duo Xing” on the “Pao Xiao Yan” product page, the staff said that the company’s bird’s nest brewed beverage product is different from fresh stewed bird’s nest. It is a conceptual addition of bird’s nest, as well as red dates and other ingredients. “It’s just a publicity statement, not a health care effect, but a wish for the future babies of pregnant and childbirth consumers to be smart.
Experts say “eating bird’s nest to help intelligence” lacks scientific verification
Regarding whether bird’s nests can be used for publicity, Li Lei, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm, stated that Article 38 of the “Implementation Regulations of China’s Food Safety Law” stipulates that foods other than health foods shall not be claimed to have health functions. When bird’s nest has not been included in the scope of health care products, it cannot be claimed to have health benefits.
In addition to the above types, the e-commerce promotion of other Chinese bird’s nest brands can be roughly divided into three categories. One is only adding the words “Pregnant Woman” or “Pregnant Bird’s Nest” in the title of the product, but there is no content related to pregnancy and childbirth on the page; the other is the product information. It is said that what nutrients can be taken by pregnant women when eating bird’s nest, and what are the functions of the nutrients themselves; thirdly, the promotion page only indicates that bird’s nest is nutritious for pregnant women, and no detailed explanation is given.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the School of Law of the Renmin University of China, said that although it is not reflected in the text, the words “pregnant woman” appear on the title or head picture, which is actually guiding pregnant women. Eating a bird’s nest to be healthy and staying young is exaggerated, because there are also factors such as personal nutritional balance or good rest, which cannot be entirely attributed to eating bird’s nests. Whether there are misleading and false propaganda elements still depends on whether there are experimental proofs for propaganda such as “Pregnant women eat bird’s nest”.
Li Lei also said that whether the propaganda is appropriate depends on whether the nutritional conclusions such as “Bird’s nest is rich in sialic acid, etc., and sialic acid contributes to brain development” are scientifically based and can be verified. If not, according to the provisions of Article 28 of the “China Advertising Law” regarding false advertising, it may be deemed to deceive and mislead consumers and constitute false advertising.
Prior to this, Li Hongwei, an associate professor at the School of Public Health of Xiamen University, and his team had stated that through experimental testing and comparison, the sialic acid content of instant bird’s nest (about 2.4 grams per 100 grams of instant bird’s nest) is 1.96 times that of breast milk. The intervention of sialic acid in rats can promote the learning and memory ability of the offspring. Based on the structure and existence of sialic acid in the human body and the results of animal experiments, it is speculated that sialic acid may be a nutrient required for infant neurodevelopment. At the same time, dietary sialic acid may increase the content of sialic acid in brain tissue and promote the improvement of cognitive ability.
However, Fan Zhihong, an associate professor of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety of the Food College of China Agricultural University, said in an interview with the media that if the experiment is only an animal experiment, it cannot completely replace a human experiment. At the same time, the number of bird’s nests eaten by the experimental subjects, the length of time they eat, and whether they are consistent with the advertised amount and length of eating are all issues that need to be considered.
According to Zhong Kai, director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, “Whether food has sialic acid and whether people need to supplement sialic acid through diet are two different things. Bird’s nest contains sialic acid, so pregnant women eat something that can promote fetal intellectual development. Inferred, it is a bit sophistry in logic.” Zhong Kai said that in theory, fetal development requires a lot of nutrients, but not all of them need to be supplemented. Some need to be supplemented from the outside, and some can be synthesized by the human body itself. On the premise that the human body can synthesize a large amount of sialic acid, more supplementation does not mean that it will be more meaningful and smarter.
In addition, there is no unified answer to bird’s nest nutrition in the Chinese industry. Some scholars believe that the nutritional value of bird’s nest still lacks a large number of scientific research and experimental proofs on the human body. Some scholars also believe that in the Qing Dynasty Zhao Xuemin’s “Compendium of Materia Medica Supplements” and other classics have recorded that bird’s nest nourish the lungs, the nutrition of bird’s nest is not unfounded.
Bird’s nest standards to be formulated to standardize the industry
In the opinion of Ma Zengjun, Chairman of the Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee, if you want to popularize bird’s nest nutrition, the association can conduct public publicity based on scientific research certificates and other materials. However, when companies as individuals promote bird’s nest food, they should be legally compliant and comply with product attributes. At the same time, the content of bird’s nest in each enterprise’s product is not the same, and the effect cannot be overstated.
Ma Zengjun said that the committee has been regulating the propaganda of enterprises, and is planning to formulate relevant industry standards to strengthen corporate self-discipline. At the same time, it assists the Chinese administrative department to supervise illegal businesses and create a good business environment. This year, one of the works of the Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee is to promote the standardization of the industry. Currently, there are quality standards and specifications for dried bird’s nest, instant bird’s nest, freshly stewed bird’s nest and other products. Among them, the fresh stewed bird’s nest also subdivided the standards for chilled, room temperature, and special populations. It is expected that in the second half of 2021, the Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee will select and launch the first batch of standards from the above content, but the specific catalog is still being drafted.
On the other hand, focusing on the nutritional basis of bird’s nest, the Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee also plans to strengthen the construction of the scientific research team of bird’s nest. It will promote the original scientific research of Chinese and foreign experts on bird’s nest, and cooperate with companies with scientific research capabilities to promote experts to study new bird’s nest topics. “Scientific research is rigorous, and related plans are available, but the promotion time will be longer.” At the same time, bird’s nest is a tonic recorded in the classics of traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese Bird’s Nest Committee also hopes to suggest to relevant departments that it should be included in the national catalog of medicines and food with the same origin. “But there are steps to everything. You have to do it step by step,” Ma Zengjun added.
Source: Beijing News