The rise of the "fan economy" supervision lags leading to the realization of celebrity traffic chaos expert advice
Rule by law
Celebrity has no bottom line traffic becomes the current behavior
● In recent years, more and more celebrities have used traffic to expand their "commercial territory."
Monetization of traffic has made celebrities a huge profit. At the same time, there have also been problems such as fake products and poor hygiene in restaurants.
● When the flow of the show business is fleeting, the stars and the capital behind the stars are eager to realize the flow as soon as possible, and use the flow to obtain the greatest economic benefits
● The flow of celebrities is chaotic, which can easily affect the young generation to establish a correct world outlook, values and outlook on life, and form wrong ideas such as advocating moneyism and hedonism
● The monetization of celebrity traffic should be developed in the direction of standardization and rule of law. Although it is understandable for businesses to use celebrities to carry out commercial activities, they should not only blindly pursue traffic and commercial interests, and ignore legal regulations and moral bottom lines.
□ Our newspaper trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
When you buy clothes, you recognize the brand because it is endorsed by your favorite celebrity; when you eat, you recognize the restaurant because it is a store opened by an idol you admire; lock live broadcasts because you want to sell your "brother"...In recent years, more and more The celebrities use the psychology of fans to realize traffic through live broadcast of goods, offline stores and other methods, and they have made huge profits. At the same time, problems such as fake products and poor hygiene of restaurants opened have aroused social concern.
In an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, a number of industry experts pointed out that this is actually a disguised advertising behavior of celebrities. Under the magnification effect of the Internet, the fans and attention of celebrities signify commercial value, thus giving birth to Develop a new business model based on traffic.
Experts said that the realization of celebrity traffic should be developed in the direction of standardization and rule of law. It is understandable for businesses to use celebrity traffic or celebrities to directly use their own traffic to carry out business activities, but they cannot blindly pursue traffic and commercial interests, regardless of legal regulations and moral bottom lines.
Flow monetization involves a wide range of fields and types, and the supervision of flow monetization should also be multi-level and multi-angle, and relevant departments should coordinate and comprehensively implement policies.
Flow monetization is becoming a trend
More and more channels
Tang Fei once worked in the marketing department of a well-known toy company. Her job requires frequent dealings with celebrities.
"Our company was in the stage of expanding the market and increasing its popularity. By choosing to cooperate with celebrities, we can use their popularity to quickly open the market." Tang Fei said that the company's main business is "blind box", and new products will be added to a certain IP series. Celebrities were invited to record "video of blind box removal".
The "homework" of Tang Fei and the team is to do a good job of background investigation of celebrities, and invite the celebrities with the most traffic within the range of controllable cost. "What we value is the traffic brought by celebrities."
"We also need to distinguish effective traffic. The size of celebrity traffic depends not only on the number of fans, but also on the amount of interaction and fan activity in a cycle." Tang Fei said that from the perspective of product sales, the effect is immediate.
The reporter found that the price marked by the company's official shopping flagship store is a minimum of 708 yuan for a complete set of blind boxes.
This is just a microcosm of more and more celebrities using traffic to expand their "commercial territory" in recent years-
A group of celebrities joined the catering industry. Xue Zhiqian, Chen He, Bao Beier, etc. opened hot pot restaurants, Lin Gengxin opened a barbecue restaurant, Zheng Shuang opened a fried chicken restaurant, and Guan Xiaotong opened a milk tea restaurant...
Star live broadcasts have gradually become popular.
During this year's "6.18" period, Taobao statistics star live broadcast rankings, 20 well-known artists are on the list, and Lin Yilun, Hu Ke and Zhu Dan ranked first in three areas respectively.
Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economics and Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, also noticed that the realization of celebrity traffic has become a new trend in the entertainment industry.
According to his observations, driven by "flow first", flow has become an absolute factor to measure the influence of celebrities, and ultimately affect their commercial value.
In this case, celebrities with high traffic will naturally attract more merchants, thereby earning high endorsement fees, carrying fees, etc., and traffic monetization is also more efficient and convenient.
Yang Min, a lawyer of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, has been concerned about and researching the legal construction of the film and television entertainment industry for a long time.
She introduced that celebrity traffic monetization gradually showed two characteristics: more and more channels for celebrity traffic monetization, from the past mainly relying on traditional media, to the Internet, new media, such as live broadcast platforms, social software, etc.; celebrity traffic monetization There are more and more types of products, from the past mainly through advertising endorsements, to now through live broadcast to bring goods, open online stores, and open companies.
Regardless of interest and neglect of responsibility
Bad influence in many aspects
On August 24, the Market Supervision Bureau of Beijing’s Haidian District released a typical case of illegal advertising. The first case was the case of talk show actor Li Dan publishing illegal advertising.
According to the Haidian Municipal Supervision Bureau, Li Dan posted an advertisement for branded women’s underwear on his personal Weibo account, containing content such as “a device that allows women to easily lie down and win the workplace”. The content of the copy is vulgar and insults women’s dignity, and administrative penalties are imposed on him. , Confiscate illegal income and fine a total of more than 870,000 yuan.
The problems exposed by the realization of celebrity traffic can be seen.
Especially in star restaurants, problems such as false propaganda, environmental sanitation, and food quality are constantly emerging.
In July of this year, the hot pot brand "La Dou La" founded by Hunan Satellite TV host Du Haitao, one of its franchise stores was complained by consumers that there were flies in the hot pot soup.
Subsequently, the store was ordered by the local market supervision department to suspend business for rectification due to problems such as non-compliance with standards, flies flying around, and lack of operating permits.
Some celebrities’ live broadcast rooms have also become the hardest hit areas for complaints.
In November last year, the "Double 11" consumer rights protection public opinion analysis report released by the China Consumers Association showed that the hardest-hit areas of consumer negative complaints were live streaming products, including talk show actor Li Xueqin and others "swiping orders" and traffic fraud.
There are also a number of P2P projects endorsed by celebrities.
For example, the Aiqianjin App, endorsed by Wang Han, has ceased business due to violations of laws and regulations, and has been under criminal investigation for the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits.
Liu Chengjun, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law and executive vice president of the Beijing Film and Entertainment Law Society, told reporters that some stars only pay attention to the realization of traffic to obtain benefits, and ignore their own responsibilities in management and endorsements, which can easily bring negative effects to the society, industry, fans and other aspects. Influence.
"Not long ago, more and more celebrities in the entire film and television entertainment industry were not doing their jobs properly, focusing on commercial endorsements and traffic monetization, making quick and big money. Fans were guided by the wrong way to party together, leading to a series of irrational behaviors. , Such as pinching each other black, should aid and curse war, etc." Liu Chengqi pointed out.
Yang Min said that celebrities' obsession with monetizing traffic is not conducive to the healthy development of the cultural and entertainment industry, and may cause the industry to focus on acquiring traffic and developing a "fan economy", resulting in a decline in the quality of cultural and entertainment works and chaos in the industry.
If this chaos is not restricted and supervision is strengthened, the criteria for judging the value of stars will slide toward commercial value and traffic value, rather than the professionalism and excellent works of the stars themselves.
"Stars are obsessed with the realization of traffic, fans blindly consume, and continue to pay for traffic, so that some companies no longer pay attention to product quality and core competitiveness, but invest a large amount of money in product endorsement fees and promotional fees. It is also possible Affect the healthy operation of the economic order." Yang Min believes.
In Ren Chao’s view, due to admiration and even blind worship, some fans, especially young fans, would unconditionally trust the products endorsed by celebrities and the restaurants they opened. They are easily deceived by celebrity packaging and lack a clear understanding of product quality and food safety. Conversely, it will indulge celebrity endorsement products and celebrity restaurants ignore quality.
According to the "Research Report on National Minor Internet Usage in 2020", the proportion of Chinese minor netizens participating in fan support has reached 8%.
Yang Min reminded that the chaos of celebrity traffic can easily affect the young generation to establish a correct world outlook, values and outlook on life, and form wrong ideas such as advocating moneyism and hedonism. This chaos must be severely rectified.
Traffic becomes the existing "pushman"
Low cost of illegality and high profit
Why is celebrity traffic monetization increasingly flooded?
In Yang Min's view, celebrities monetize their traffic in a variety of ways, which is essentially an act of recovering investment.
To build a traffic star, for the capital behind the star, it takes a huge economic cost; for the star itself, it also takes a huge time cost.
"Celebrities and capitalists get huge returns through fans’ paying bills, and more businesses are willing to use celebrity influence to promote, publicize, and sell. This cycle eventually leads to the current showbiz celebrities increasingly pursuing traffic, celebrities The chaos of traffic realization is becoming more and more common." Yang Min said.
In Ren Chao’s view, with the introduction of some regulatory policies in the film and television industry last year, including the reduction of the number of film and television dramas, the reduction of investment projects, and the issuance of "salary restrictions" for celebrities, the income of celebrities has been affected to a certain extent, and some celebrities have passed the normal Channels for realizing traffic in performing arts activities are not smooth enough, especially traffic stars are unable to make their own popularity through their works, and can only rely on the purchasing power of fans.
Ren Chao believes that with the fleeting flow of the showbiz, the stars and the capital behind the stars are eager to realize the flow as soon as possible, and use the flow to obtain the greatest economic benefits. One of the ways to quickly realize the flow of traffic.
At the same time, by inviting traffic stars to endorsements, brand owners can also use their traffic to attract fans to buy a large number of company products and increase product sales. This is a mutually beneficial operation for traffic stars, brand owners, and live broadcast platforms.
Yang Min said that the rise of the "fan economy" and the lagging nature of supervision are the main reasons why celebrities are obsessed with monetizing traffic.
The "fan economy" enables celebrities to transform their influence into tangible sources of income, which intuitively expands the income of celebrities; and for the new model of "fan economy" and traffic monetization, there is still a certain degree of supervision. The lag of star traffic has led to low illegal costs but huge benefits under the realization of star traffic. In the end, star traffic has become more and more intense in the entertainment industry.
Promote standardization and rule of law
Flow becomes an existing chapter to follow
The state has implemented a series of governance measures in response to the fact that some celebrities have no bottom-line traffic.
On August 27, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Chaos in the "Fan Circle"", proposing ten measures such as abolishing the list of celebrity artists, optimizing and adjusting the ranking rules, and strict management of celebrity brokerage companies to solve the problem of "fan The problem of chaos in the circle.
Yang Min believes that the realization of celebrity traffic should be developed in the direction of standardization and rule of law. Although it is understandable for businesses to use celebrities to carry out business activities, they cannot just blindly pursue traffic and commercial interests, regardless of legal regulations and moral bottom lines.
Flow monetization involves a wide range of fields and types, and the supervision of flow monetization should also be multi-level and multi-angle, and relevant departments should coordinate and comprehensively implement policies.
She analyzed that from the perspective of the rule of law, it is necessary to regulate the flow of the showbiz and improve the self-discipline rules of the industry. concentric".
Only by constructing complete laws and regulations, industry self-discipline rules, clarifying the behavior standards and scope of the celebrities, strengthening the management of traffic celebrities, which behaviors can be done, which behaviors can not be done, and increasing the illegal cost of celebrity traffic monetization can effectively regulate traffic monetization Chaos.
Liu Chengjun suggested that the issue of the realization of celebrity traffic can be regulated under the existing legal framework.
Because the traffic monetization problem is essentially a disguised advertising behavior, that is, the sale of goods or services, which can be included in the regulatory scope of the Advertising Law.
In addition to the issues of false advertisements and endorsements, if celebrities are involved in asking fans to contribute money and fundraising, it may involve illegal fund-raising; if celebrities open stores and sell products under their own brands, it involves sales contracts and product quality issues. Responsibility issues.
At the same time, law enforcement agencies should also increase supervision of star traffic that may be problematic.
The Film Industry Promotion Law stipulates that film practitioners such as actors and directors shall adhere to both virtue and art, abide by laws and regulations, respect social ethics, abide by professional ethics, strengthen self-discipline, and establish a good social image.
“Principle clauses like this can play a certain role in oversight, but in the future, it needs to be further explained and applied, and transformed into some specific regulations, which can regulate and lead the industry.” Liu Chengjun said.
Ren Chao believes that in order for the performing arts circle to develop healthily, it is necessary to effectively supervise the flow of liquidation, return to the system standard that puts social interests first, and treat the relationship between “flow” and “stars” in a correct way. Of course, both have their own market. Value and importance, but whether it is film and television products, celebrity endorsement products, and celebrity restaurants, the pursuit of high quality should be the goal.
"Relevant market supervision and management departments should actively perform their responsibilities for supervising celebrity endorsement products, live broadcast products and celebrity catering, and implement more stringent supervision measures, especially focusing on regular inspections of their product publicity issues and product safety issues, and strive for Investigate and correct problems before they cause actual harm.” Ren Chao said that for celebrities’ false propaganda, food safety issues, etc., penalties should be increased in accordance with the law, forcing them to attach importance to quality.
Experts also proposed that it is possible to explore the introduction of special entertainment laws to regulate the chaos of celebrity traffic. The illegal penalties can include not only fines, administrative detention, etc., but also from the traffic perspective, and the competent authority will notify the illegal celebrities. Criticism, etc., to reduce the trust of fans, thereby effectively regulating related behaviors.