Does coconut juice have anything to do with having a well-rounded bust? Probably not, but a Chinese beverage company based in the southern tropical island of Hainan claims in its commercials and package designs that taking regular swigs of its coconut juice can cure “breast deficiency”.
Hainan Coconut Palm Group Co. Ltd. is known for its penchant for employing thinly-clad, buxom young ladies to promote its products in ads with taglines like “Look at me, I grew up drinking it” and “smearing coconut juice on your bust can boost its size”.
The new design of the canned drink, with a curvy young woman in a tight outfit proudly displaying her cleavage while holding a can of the drink, was dismissed by Hainan’s market watchdog as “misleading and vulgar”.
But it is not the first time that the beverage maker has stirred controversy for unsophisticated and sometimes distasteful language in its ads.
In another ad campaign it claimed that its pomegranate juice products could help cure male impotence and boost stamina, with the slogan “wives love their husbands drinking it”, according to the Global Times.
On Tuesday, local authorities confirmed that they had launched a probe into Coconut Palm’s unsubstantiated claims about the therapeutic effects of its drinks.
But the company’s annual revenue of over five billion yuan (US$738 million) and the fact that the product is included on the beverage list of state banquets held inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing suggests these products have substantial market recognition.
Though it is not clear how foreign dignitaries attending such banquets respond to these sales gimmicks, if they know Chinese.