China Hits P&G's Crest With Record Fine For Toothpaste Ad

HONG KONG (Marketwatch) -- Procter & Gamble Co.'s Crest toothpaste brand was hit with a fine of 6.03 million yuan ($1 million) from Chinese regulators for false advertising, as it allegedly used photo-editing software to present the teeth-whitening effect in a recent television commercial, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The penalty marked the largest-ever fine for false advertising in China, the report said. The ad for Crest's "double-effect" whitening toothpaste had a Taiwanese celebrity saying her teeth were visibly whiter after just one day of using the product. However, the whiteness was mainly due to the use of effects editing rather than the toothpaste, the report quoted a statement from the Shanghai Administrative Bureau of Industry and Commerce as saying. Responding to the reports, Crest China said late Monday on its official Weibo microblogging account that the commercial had already been pulled since the middle of last year. Meanwhile, the "one-day whitening" referred to in the ad involves both the use of the toothpaste and employing correct brushing technique, it said.