What’s trending?

#官方回应女模特背上画户型图#

#Official response to floor plan model incident# has been growing in views online, as consumers maintain focus on bad-taste marketing campaigns and the objectification of women, this time in China’s booming housing sector.

What’s the story?

A property developer’s open day in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, has caused uproar online for recruiting female models to get the new development’s design plan drawn on their backs.

Two models were temporarily tattooed with outlines of two small commercial spaces (27m2 and 43m2) during the introductory presentation on 18 March at which prospective buyers, local officials, and of course bloggers, were present.

According to Xiaoxiang Morning News, on March 21, a spokesperson for Shaanxi Aerospace Economic and Technological Development Zone said that the developer had been suspended from selling houses pending an investigation, and that punishment would be meted out by the local Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in conjunction with the market supervision department.

In a game of cat and mouse, property prices across China have boomed in 2021, while the government has imposed increasing restrictions on purchases to put the brakes on market speculation. Cooling measures have made developers seek increasingly diverse methods of selling properties, and seen customers even resort to fake divorces to obtain permission to purchase more than one apartment.

China’s Consumer Day on 15 March highlighted advertising fails as well as consumer rights infringements, increasing social media attention on unethical sales techniques such as this housing promotion which might be considered rather desperate.

What are people saying online?

A video of the promotion posted on Weibo offended many users of the social media platform, with one saying “Regardless of gender, the marketing method alone is inexplicable and vulgar. What is the connection with customers who may want to buy property?”

Expounding on its ineffectiveness as a sales method, another wrote, “It would turn me off from buying. If the company has time to engage with such a gimmick, it had better make a [3D] model of the space.”

“Such a beautiful girl with her back exposed in the cold, I feel distressed when I see it,” wrote one Weibo user, and at least one other tackled the ethics of the campaign head-on. “I hope that the key issue that everyone will pay attention to is objectifying women and regarding women's bodies as a commodity to attract attention. We have to not only combat vulgarity, but also reduce this phenomenon.”

“There is no limit to hype when you have something you want people to see,” said one social media regular.

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