A remark about a disgraced host cost Tseng Kuo-cheng his endorsement and billboards

In March 2025, veteran Taiwanese host Tseng Kuo-cheng was hit by a triple storm: accused of body-shaming a Taipei First Girls' High School graduate on his show, criticised for saying the public should not erase disgraced host Huang Tzu-chiao's past achievements, and outed by Lan Xin-mei for once attempting to kiss Tao Jing-ying after drinking. Boycott calls spread, and he resigned from PTS's word-game show 'One Word, Ten Thousand Gold'.

The brand ran on 14 March. Fang Zi, the health-products company he endorsed, announced through founder Lin Ming-hsuan that it was terminating the endorsement contract and replacing all related advertising material. When netizens asked about his giant billboards on Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung and at Kaohsiung's Central Park station, the brand said the replacement was 'already in progress'; exclusive reporting later confirmed the outdoor billboards would be removed within about two weeks.

The cost was concrete and physical: street billboards built around one face had to be torn down, the PTS hosting slot was lost, and TV stations began turning down his appearances the same week. A veteran host with decades of advertising relationships watched a single remark unwind the endorsements attached to his image.

Fang Zi terminated the contract and tore down his billboards within two weeks, cutting first to show it sided with the offended public before backlash grew.

The billboards were the sunk cost: Fang Zi had paid for street-level visibility built entirely on his face, and once the face was the controversy the ads could not stay up another day

One remark, not a verdict, triggered it: no court and no regulator had acted — public backlash alone made the endorsement untenable

Cutting first protected the brand: terminating publicly on 14 March let Fang Zi show it sided with the offended public before the story grew further

An endorsement contract is renewed by public goodwill every day; a single controversial remark can void it overnight, and the hardest cost to recover is the physical advertising in the streets.

Fang Zi kept its distance and its billboards came down within two weeks. Tseng lost the PTS hosting slot and faced a week of TV stations declining his appearances. No brand publicly restored cooperation with him in the aftermath.