The ad from Ant Fortune, the mobile fund app owned by Alibaba’s Ant Financial, stressed the importance of early personal finance planning with a series of satirical posters during the period leading up to China’s National Day on 1 October.
Targeting low-income earners, the core message of “nobody feels pity for those who lead a substandard life in old age” was criticised on Chinese social media platforms.
Each of the 16 separate ads in the project had the name of one of Ant’s fund manager partners (see below).
AMAC publicly condemned the campaign in a Chinese-language news release. The association said it believed the ad’s message was insensitive and mocking to investors, and was unbefitting of the asset management industry.
“Fund management is an industry that helps invest on behalf of their clients. The industry cannot stand alone without being trusted by and committed to investors, and it cannot walk away from its fiduciary responsibility,” the association’s statement said.
AMAC also pointed out the importance of maintaining a high level of professionalism and ethical standards.
On its Weibo site, Ant Fortune apologised for the inappropriate style of marketing. It has removed the campaign from its official sites.
Fund manager partners named in the ad campaign, according to Weibo posts:
|
AEGON-INDUSTRIAL Fund |
Bosera Funds |
|
CCB Principal Asset Management |
China Asset Management |
|
China Merchants Fund |
China Southern Asset Management |
|
CIFM Asset Management |
Everbright Pramerica |
|
Fullgoal Fund |
GF Fund Management |
|
Guotai Asset Management |
Harvest Fund |
|
Minsheng Royal Fund Management |
Tianhong Asset Management |
|
Wanjia Asset |
Zhong Ou Asset Management |
