Netizens Expose CCTV’s Apple Tactics 网民揭露央视攻击苹果的策略
After writing yesterday about CCTV’s recent series of exposes on big companies that deceive consumers, we’re getting an interesting postscript about the biggest of those attacks, which came against US electronics giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). The postscript involves an embarrassing revelation about CCTV itself, which apparently used its own deceptive tactics to give its expose more impact. The Apple attack was part of a bigger series of televised CCTV reports exposing deceptive business practices. The reports ran last week on March 15, which is Consumer Rights Day.After launching so many attacks on companies from Volkswagen (Frankfurt: VOWG) to Internet firm NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) and Apple, often over relatively minor issues, I do find it somewhat appropriate that China’s consumers launched their own attack on CCTV for its own deceptive practices in the matter. In this particular instance, netizen sleuths uncovered the fact that CCTV apparently got a number of celebrities to write negative comments about Apple shortly after CCTV broadcast its own Apple-bashing expose.
I previously wrote that the attack, which centered on some Apple repair stores shirking their warranty responsibilities, seemed a bit overblown and was probably the result of overeager CCTV editors wanting to trash a high-profile target. (previous report) Netizens got tipped off to CCTV’s own deceptive behavior shortly after the broadcast of the Apple expose, when a series of celebrities posted negative online remarks about Apple that appeared to be in response to the news.
Some observant netizens noted something unusual about one of those posts, from actor Peter Ho, who has 5.4 million followers. Ho posted his remarks about his disappointment at Apple at 8:26 in the evening on his microblog account. Specifically, the netizens noted that at the end of Ho’s posts were the words “To publish at about 8:20 p.m.”
After some more digging, the netizens uncovered the fact that a number of high-profile personalities had joined Ho in publishing comments critical of Apple all at around 8:20. Ho later denied writing the negative comments about Apple, and said his account had been hacked. Another major figure who wrote negative comments also said he hadn’t taken money or anything else from CCTV.
For me, the major point in this saga is similar to what I said previously, namely that high-profile western companies like Apple are attractive targets for attacks by Chinese media, often over relatively small offenses. The fact that CCTV would secretly get celebrities to endorse its reporting doesn’t surprise me at all, as such tactics obviously help to give more credibility to its reports. It’s just unfortunate that most of the time this kind of deceptive practice isn’t uncovered by netizens, meaning victims of media attacks can unfairly suffer severe damage to their reputations.
Bottom line: Revelations that CCTV secretly had celebrities endorse its attacks on Apple underscore the high degree of exposure that major multinationals face to such attacks in China.
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