US film 'The 355' featuring Fan Bingbing draws outrage from Chinese netizens for use of national flag in poster

US film The 355 has drawn ire from Chinese netizens because one of its posters featured the Chinese national flag, and netizens said that it violated China's advertising law. 
According to The Global Times, the post of the film showcases Chinese actress Fan Bingbing standing in front of the Chinese flag. China's advertising law stipulates that the national flag of China cannot be used for commercial purposes, in addition to national anthem, national emblem, military flag, military anthem, and military emblem. 

The commercial use of the Chinese flag in the poster has angered Chinese netizens with some of them calling for the poster to be changed. The Global Times quoted a netizen who said that the national flag could not be commercialised and the poster was under suspicion of violating the National Flag Law. The 355 movie stars Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong'o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, Sebastian Stan and Édgar Ramírez. The movie is expected to be screened in North America and Taiwan. However, the report said due to Fan's tax evasion case in 2018, the film "will not be screened in China."

Some Chinese celebrities have been banned by the government due to their scandals. For example, singer Kris Wu was banned following an accusation emerging of Wu date-raping underage girls. The singer was accused of targeting, and pressuring, a teenage girl and other young women for sex. The accusations, which Wu denied in multiple statements, have triggered widespread public outrage, according to a report from The New York Times. On his Weibo account, Wu said he did not respond to the initial accusations as he did not want to interfere with judicial proceedings. He added that his silence resulted in the escalation from the accuser and his current statement comes as he can not bear the allegations anymore. 

However, brands also decided to cut ties with him or suspended collaborations. On its Weibo account, Luis Vuitton said on 19 July it decided to suspend the collaboration with Wu until the result of the judicial investigation is announced. However, Wu posted some photos about Louis Vuitton's latest fall/winter collection on 8 July and the post is still on his account without deleting it.  Meanwhile, Chinese cosmetic brand Kans announced on Weibo that it has already issued a letter to Wu to terminate the contract, while the collaboration between the brand and Wu had ended.  

Also, Prada cut ties with Chinese actress Zheng Shuang after the latter was recently embroiled in a surrogacy controversy. The Italian luxury fashion house announced on Weibo that it has terminated all partnerships with Zheng Shuang but did not provide additional details. According to Reuters, the move comes one week after Zheng was appointed as brand ambassador.

Photo Courtesy: The 355 website

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