The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 places most regions of China in pause. Public life is largely interrupted, with transportations and logistics services shutting down. Among the influenced, poverty-stricken areas are the most severely impacted, for their products, which is often perishable seasonal agricultural products, are not restricted to local regions and cannot be sold to a wider market. To mitigate this impact, local government officials often show up in live streaming events to help endorse for local products. While this does help revive local economy, it is increasingly concerned that this will damage fair market competition. This study takes a qualitative approach to examine the ethical issues arousing from this phenomenon and interviewed 10 Chinese consumers for their opinions. The results suggest that the fairness concern is less prominent than expected. Most consumers recognize the economy-reviving effect of such endorsement and believe that it helps achieve the country’s poverty-lifting goals. Although there are ethical considerations like bribing and unfair competition, it is believed that this is only a crisis-coping strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and during normal times this phenomenon will be limited to a lower level.

Wei Wang, Jianping Wu. Consumer Perceptions of Ethical Issues Arising from Chinese Private Companies’ Marketing Strategies Involving Local Officials’ Endorsement. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2022) Vol. 5, Issue 8: 76-83. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2022.050813.

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