The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
A snack brand called itself 'nationwide No.1 in sales' on a survey nobody could check
Yingke Food advertised its duck-tongue snack as 'nationwide No.1 in sales'. The survey behind the claim was phone calls with no recorded respondents.
Yingke Food · 2026-02
What happened
From April of the previous year, Wenzhou's Yingke Food advertised its packaged duck-tongue snack as '2024's nationwide No.1 in sales' across Douyin livestreams, product pages, and outdoor light-box posters and in-store displays — a specific, checkable ranking claim rather than ordinary sales talk.
To back the claim, the company pointed to a statement from a third-party research firm. When regulators examined it, the underlying data on competitors had been gathered only through phone interviews, with no record of who had actually been surveyed, and the methodology behind the ranking was found unscientific — the conclusion had no real evidence to stand on.
Wenzhou's market regulator ruled the citation-backed claim false advertising under the Advertisement Law and fined Yingke Food 200,000 yuan in February 2026, one of four livestream e-commerce cases the city's regulator highlighted and one the State Administration for Market Regulation later named among ten national model cases.
Why it happened
- Citing a third-party study made the claim look evidence-based rather than boastful, which is exactly the kind of dressed-up unsupported claim advertising law is written to catch.
- A survey gathered by phone with no record of respondents cannot support a national ranking, and repeating a number a research firm hands over without checking it is not due diligence.
- Running the claim across posters, product pages and light boxes for months meant the unsupported number reached buyers repeatedly before anyone checked it was true.
The lesson
Yingke Food called its snack 'nationwide No.1 in sales', backed by a phone survey with no recorded respondents. Fined 200,000 yuan. A citation only proves a claim if it survives being checked.
Aftermath
Wenzhou's market regulator fined Yingke Food 200,000 yuan for the unsupported sales-ranking claim, one of ten cases the State Administration for Market Regulation later cited nationally as a model enforcement example.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Haihe Milk's livestream host used sexual innuendo to sell milk
A Guilin bakery turned a nearby earthquake into a '520' promotion
Goldenberry's chocolate ad ran a sexual pun, then blamed the platform's layout tool for it
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.