[2] How far can a star, popularized by "milk dumping," go in their career?
Compiled from: Sina Finance, Red Star News
Case review
Recently, a video of dumping milk to vote for a celebrity went viral online. In the video, a group of people skillfully opened dairy products, kept the bottle caps, and poured the milk into a drain, with a half-person-high wall of dairy products behind them. Some netizens identified that the dumped product was Mengniu Zhenguoli beverage, used for voting in iQiyi's talent show.
Mengniu True Fruit is reportedly been a sponsor of Youth With You for three consecutive years. After purchasing the product, viewers can vote for contestants on the talent show, but voting requires scanning a QR code, which is located inside the bottle cap and can only be scanned after the bottle is opened. As a result, some fans jokingly call the “votes” “milk votes.”
On May 4, Xinhua News Agency published an article strongly criticizing the dumping of milk, sharply pointing out the negative effects of such behavior and questioning whether the attention-grabbing spectacle might mislead young people, while calling out, “Don’t lead young people astray!” On May 5, CCTV issued a critique, stating that merchants and platforms are hard to absolve of blame in the “milk dumping” incident.
The competent authorities also intervened immediately. On the evening of May 4, the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau issued a statement on its WeChat official account, ordering iQIYI to suspend the recording of subsequent episodes of Youth With You Season 3 and requiring iQIYI to thoroughly investigate and rectify the existing problems.
Facing public criticism and intervention from regulatory authorities, the video platform iQiyi and the brand Mengniu, both involved in the incident, issued apologies on May 6 and May 7, respectively.
It is worth noting that right at the time of this "pouring milk" controversy
The previous few days
The Anti-Food Waste Law officially took effect on April 29. This means that practicing economy and opposing waste are no longer just advocacy and calls to action, but are now backed by legal constraints.
The Anti-Food Waste Law
Article 3
The state practices thrift and opposes waste.
The state adheres to the principles of taking multiple measures, implementing precise policies, scientific management, and social co-governance, adopting technically feasible and economically reasonable measures to prevent and reduce food waste.
The state advocates civilized, healthy, resource-saving, and environmentally friendly consumption patterns, promoting simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon lifestyles.
Article 14
Individuals should adopt a civilized, healthy, rational, and green consumption mindset, ordering and taking food reasonably based on their health conditions, dietary habits, and dining needs when eating out.
Families and their members should cultivate scientific, healthy habits that make the best use of resources and prevent waste, purchasing, storing, and preparing food according to actual daily needs.
[1] The author's perspective
Thrift and cherishing food are traditional virtues of the Chinese nation. This time, with the enactment of the Anti-Food Waste Law, valuing food is no longer just a moral constraint but also a legal one. In this case, some fervent fans, in order to support their idol stars, did not hesitate to pour out cartons of milk. Little did they know that while the rich waste extravagantly, the poor suffer from hunger—such absurd behavior has already violated the law.
Although this behavior has breached the Anti-Food Waste Law, it is regrettable that the law does not specify how to penalize it, which diminishes its effectiveness in implementation. As a result, this incident has mainly led to apologies and rectifications from iQiyi and Mengniu, making it difficult to hold individual consumers accountable. Regardless, this distorted consumption mindset has crossed both moral and legal boundaries, showing a severe lack of social responsibility. Fans should pursue idols rationally, and idols should debut legally.
