Durex is under fire in China for its disappointing live streaming ad. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Chinese anti-pornography agency will be taking steps to prevent sexually suggestive advertisements from being posted over the Internet after Durex’s highly controversial three-hour live broadcast that piqued the interest of over five million people.
According to the Global Times, the Durex ad promised a live broadcast of 100 couples doing intimate activities late on Tuesday to promote their new condom product.
The company's voyeurism-themed marketing posts implied that the couples will be having sex while being streamed online.
Because of this, a total of five million viewers were enticed to tune in to six video streaming platforms, including Youku, LeEco, and Douyuto, to watch the exciting three-hour event.
But much to their dismay, the entire broadcast was plagued with the couples doing exercise, eating fruit and chatting.
When it was finally time for the couples to lie down together in bed, a massive cloud of smoke filled the entire space where they were being broadcast.
Many were unsatisfied with the "anticlimactic" ending, with some complaining that "nothing happened until the end."
Marketing Interactive reported that the condom-maker was subjected to an Internet rally where netizens used the hash tag "resist Durex" to express their displeasure with the company, which currently holds 45 percent market share in China.
According to QQ.com, many criticized the company, but some also fired at the streaming websites who decided to air Durex's ad despite the country's crackdown on pornographic activities and materials.
To prevent another such incident from happening, the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office revealed its plans on exerting more effort to bringing these kinds of vulgar marketing and soft-core pornography to justice.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Culture called on to online streaming service providers to bear legal responsibility for broadcasting such vulgar contents on their websites, adding that violators should be punished.
