Amid widespread condemnation, a once-touted "miracle drug for cataracts" has fallen from its pedestal, and the tactics of Shapu Aisi have reignited national debate over false advertising and consumer fraud.
Other brands facing skepticism over misleading promotions include Guazi Used Cars, Wanglaoji, and Hongmao Medicinal Liquor. In the era of mass media, businesses have spared no effort in crafting advertisements to lure consumers — their tactics are endlessly inventive. Just how much harm can a single false advertisement cause to consumers?
A harmful fake drug
"For 20 years on the market, bringing light to countless cataract patients, it is the leading brand in cataract treatment medication." This was the slogan used in advertisements for the "miracle drug" Shapu Aisi.
Precisely because of this slogan, patients who could have regained their sight sooner missed their treatment windows, delayed optimal surgery times, and some even ended up completely blind.
"The only effective treatment for cataracts is surgery — currently, no medication can treat it effectively, and this is a consensus in the medical community," Dr. Cui Hongping of Shanghai East Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department has publicly criticized Shapu Aisi multiple times. Yet Shapu Aisi continued to brainwash patients with false advertising claims of "preventing and treating early-stage senile cataracts," exploiting people’s fear of surgery for marketing gain.
Industry insiders pointed out: "Shapu Aisi not only claimed to prevent and treat cataracts, but also listed symptoms of the disease. This is the smartest part of their advertising: substituting symptoms for the disease itself. Many people, upon seeing the ads and hearing the claims, noticed similar symptoms and rushed to buy Shapu Aisi eye drops — doctors couldn’t stop them."
On one hand, Shapu Aisi’s advertisements contain exaggerated interpretations, meaning they can be understood as containing false or misleading content, constituting suspected false advertising. On the other hand, the phrase "early-stage senile" in Shapu Aisi ads is displayed in extremely small font, seemingly to conceal it — the intent being to mislead about the scope of the drug’s applicability, which violates requirements of the Advertising Law.
So is Shapu Aisi really a "miracle drug"? It turns out that the product is merely a bendazac lysine eye drop, with a production cost of around 1.45 RMB per bottle, and it cannot truly cure cataracts.
The rampant spread of false pharmaceutical advertising not only defrauds patients of their money — most unforgivably, it delays their treatment, causing serious physical and psychological harm.
A disheartening used car platform
Before the Shapu Aisi scandal broke, Guazi Used Cars was also condemned by public opinion for false advertising.
Similarly adept at pushing boundaries, with slogans like "No middlemen, no markups, transaction volume far ahead of the rest," Guazi Used Cars’ advertising campaign was no less aggressive than Shapu Aisi’s, luring unsuspecting buyers and sellers of used cars.
When an intermediary platform rides the wave of the internet era, it transforms into a so-called pioneer of the C2C "direct sales" model. But how can it explain the ever-increasing "service fees"? The minimum service fee for a single vehicle transaction on the Guazi platform has now been raised to 3,500 RMB.
According to a Guazi user: "What’s the service fee? It’s just Guazi accompanying you for a quick vehicle inspection during the transfer process — you still have to pay the transfer fee yourself, and that’s not even the worst part. If you’re buying a car with a loan, get ready to be ripped off. They’ll make you pay all sorts of fees, with interest rates that are frighteningly high."
In addition, Guazi Used Cars Direct Sales Network’s use of phrases like "far ahead" and "nationally leading" in its advertising across various platforms has drawn scrutiny for potential unfair competition, hindering the development of the used car industry. Recently, the Beijing Haidian District Court ruled that Guazi Used Cars must cease its false advertising. The China E-commerce Association also issued a statement, saying it had never published any used car transaction data, directly accusing Guazi of fabricating figures.
Some consumers feel that Guazi Used Cars’ advertising is vastly different from their actual experiences, and that they were misled by the ads and thus "trapped" — a truly disheartening reality. Vague promises and a habit of falsifying data ultimately leave those uninformed users and the entire capital market to foot the bill.
Billions spent on brainwashing ads raise deep concerns
Though operating in different industries, both Shapu Aisi and Guazi Used Cars have fallen into the same trap: prioritizing massive promotional efforts over research and service, and choosing irresponsible, overwhelming advertising methods.
It’s been reported that from 2011 to 2016, Shapu Aisi’s advertising expenses increased from 79 million RMB to 263 million RMB, while its revenue rose from 409 million RMB to 979 million RMB. Even more baffling is that according to the company’s own announcements, in 2016, its R&D spending was just 29.02 million RMB, accounting for only 2.97% of revenue. For a pharmaceutical company, R&D spending didn’t even amount to a fraction of its ad budget, and its proportion of revenue has been declining year by year.
Guazi Used Cars is even more extreme. Based on the disclosed figures for its advertising expenditures, over a span of 21 months from March 2016 to the present, its total promotional spending has exceeded 2 billion RMB — a figure that even listed companies like Shapu Aisi can’t match.
But after spending such enormous sums on advertising, Guazi Used Cars has faced accusations of false advertising, declining reputation, unfair competition, data fabrication, and profitability struggles. In short, while fabricating data, it presents a rosy image — and spends heavily to ensure everyone sees that image.
High investment in advertising brought huge profits for Shapu Aisi, and equally massive funding rounds for Guazi Used Cars. The immense returns from false advertising are the fundamental reason why so many businesses throw caution to the wind.
Excessively exaggerated advertising is not viable — innovation is the foundation of sustainable business growth. Behind false advertising lies a ruthless pursuit of profit and deception of tens of millions of consumers.
It is hoped that all relevant parties can work together to maintain fair market competition, eliminate the survival of the unfittest, and crack down hard on false advertising — only then can we protect consumers who are often in passive positions in the information age, and promote healthy, orderly development across all industries.