As China tries to modernize, its people are running into some of the incongruities we jaded post-consumerists in the West have learned to endure without even much noticing. One is the idea that when a celebrity endorses something, it must be true.
Reuters reported recently that a woman in China named Zhang has sued Guo Degang, a "famous Chinese comic," for making false claims in a TV ad about a diet aid called the "Tibetan Secret Fat Elimination Tea" (in the West it would probably be "Tummy-Trimming Tibetan Tea" or "Flab Away the Tibetan Way").
In the ad, Guo promised "no big belly after three boxes of tea" (no promises on possible effects to the bladder, however). But Zhang only got sick after going through the magical three boxes. So she sued both Guo and the company (apparently, one plague of Western life catching on in China is trial lawyers).
Guo countered with the standard dodge that, well, it worked for me, so get off my back, lady.
The case was pending at Just Desserts press time, but in the meantime Zhang got another shocker revelation: it seems that the tea isn't Tibetan at all!
Well, of all the nerve...
