Has the advertising game of "big text catches eyes, small text disclaims responsibility" finally come to an end?

The chaos in industry advertising will face a wave of strict regulation.

On March 13, according to the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Administration issued the “Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Promotional Language in Advertising” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), deploying a six-month campaign to clean up and regulate related advertising chaos.

The “Notice” outlines six key tasks: rectifying misleading large-font advertisements, lawfully investigating ads that do not prominently display promotional language, lawfully cracking down on illegal use of absolute terms, strengthening the regulation of testimonial advertisements, enhancing the supervision of advertisers’ self-verified content, and tightening oversight of major advertising media.

I believe that enthusiasts in the mobile phone industry are quite familiar with these issues, as exaggerated large-font claims and disclaimers in small print are very common in this sector.

For example, the long-ridiculed large-font label—“King of Backlight,” with the small print “The King of Backlight is a design goal”—is a typical promotional stunt.

This is definitely a marketing trick…

It’s not just Xiaomi that does this; many brands do the same. For instance, Huawei Mate80 describes its waterproof performance on the product page as—“Fearless of dust, unshaken by waves,” with images showing it submerged in water.

Does this give the impression of high waterproof capability? But in the small print at the bottom right, it states—“Ad creative, this product is not a professional waterproof phone.”

Promoting its waterproof features while disclaiming it’s not a professional waterproof device—Errr…

Not only Xiaomi and Huawei, but other brands also do the same. Apple is no exception.

As for why phone manufacturers do this, mainly to avoid exaggerated claims, since many advertising phrases are impossible to verify.

Terms like “Peak Imaging,” “King of Backlight,” “Super Eye Protection” are marketing buzzwords that cannot be substantiated.

In June last year, vivo released a poster for its foldable product vivo X Fold5 with eye-catching slogans like “The Strongest Foldable Flagship,” but upon closer inspection, the large text was preceded by small gray text with the word “Target.” Similarly, Meizu faced controversy over such tactics.

In the second half of 2025, Yicai focused on the marketing chaos of “big text grabbing attention, small text disclaiming,” publishing multiple in-depth reports. For example, in the article “‘Big Text Boasts, Small Text Disclaims’: The Marketing Chaos in the Auto Industry, Ensnaring Consumers,” it pointed out recent issues of large-font and small-font tactics, artificial “Number One” claims, exposing the unhealthy marketing practices in the auto industry, which drew high attention from the industry and relevant authorities.

This time, the crackdown on marketing chaos such as “big text grabbing attention, small text disclaiming,” “arbitrary claims of being first, original, best,” “carrot-and-stick citations,” and downplaying consumer-unfriendly information will be strictly enforced to investigate and punish serious deceptive and misleading advertising violations that disrupt market order.

Therefore, if this regulation truly enforces strict control over the “big text grabbing attention, small text disclaiming” advertising model, future manufacturers will likely need to be more cautious in their promotions:

On one hand, reducing exaggerated marketing language; on the other, providing more truthful and verifiable data.

For the entire industry, especially for ordinary consumers like us, this is undoubtedly a good thing.