In early June, a public service advertisement promoting breast cancer awareness created widespread controversy in China. The poster appeared beside major bus stations on the roads in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. Three women-two TV anchors, Xu Jing and Chen Dan, and Lisa, a junior at the Hunan College of International Economics-are the focus of the dispute because they appeared in the ad semi-nude, with key parts of their body covered by their arms or hair.

The "pink ribbon" breast cancer prevention project started in the United States in 1992, and has developed into an international organization to combat the disease. The organization has been recognized by many women worldwide and entered China in 2003.

Since nudity can be easily linked to pornography, many people believe that a public service advertisement should not be designed in this way. They argue that the prominence of the participants may mislead teenagers. However, proponents said there is nothing wrong in three women making a semi-nude public service ad, as long as people learn to appreciate the ad with a healthy mind.

Confronted with the controversy, the three explained that they did the ad for free, with the purpose of making women more aware of their health. Xu said, "The advertisement is not as revealing as people described. It's just that we want to use the most direct way, or the dialogue of bodies, to promote social awareness of women's health. We cannot change the outdated values of everyone, but we want to change as many as we can."

An inappropriate ad

Liu Haiming (student at Guangxi University): From a male citizen's perspective, I don't deny the fact that the three half-nude females on the advertisement are very sexy. However, a public service advertisement is designed to give publicity to causes that concern the public interest. Therefore, a public welfare ad should not be linked to pornography. Although I don't know the exact purpose of this nude ad, one thing is for sure-this ad, depicting females' half-nude bodies, besmirches the reputation of public service advertising.

What can the half-nude ad bring to people? A public welfare cause is supposed to benefit the public. Even if the call is for donating blood, or publicity to prevent venereal disease, it will be effective enough if implicit and concise language and a proper picture are used. The arrangement of colors in a public service advertisement is supposed to enhance the ad's effect so as to prompt more people to care about the public welfare cause and promote the development of public welfare. Therefore, a public service advertisement, on the one hand, should uniform the public and on the other hand, it should bring aesthetic enjoyment to the people. The beauty of an advertisement does not lie in capturing a pornographic perspective or the half-nude bodies of females.

Frankly speaking, the half-nude advertisement in Changsha City is not only no good for the passers-by, but will have negative social effects.

This kind of advertisement is inappropriate because the nudity downgraded the tastefulness of the public service ad and affected the reputation of public welfare causes. It is hard to explain the purpose of using a nude photo as a kind of advertisement.

Furthermore, two of the three models in the ad are anchors for the local television station. Normally, TV anchors are the best choice as image ambassadors and are purveyors of social norms. As a result, it is better for them to keep clean and behave themselves in public events, because anchors' clothing style and behavior are likely to be imitated by youngsters.

It is dangerous for such a public service advertisement to appear on the roadside of major cities.

Lu Zhijian (civil servant in Hunan Province): Must the females take off their clothes to perform for a so-called public service advertisement? Why do they deliberately cover some parts of their body to make people wonder what is the mystery? Is this a call for society to care for women, or is it just a manipulation of female physiological characteristics to stimulate the audiences' eyeballs?

I haven't seen the advertisement and don't know how it feels to see the ad in person. However, in facing pretty women with fair skin and long, flowing hair, instead of appreciating the exquisite human form, we would easily be attracted to the covered parts of the three women. How can people be made aware of a women's health problem? More likely, lust will be aroused.

As a matter of fact, the nude picture of females is just another version of the current "beauty economy," which tends to use females' appearance, body and sexual features to attract attention.

Some netizens pointed out directly that when the beautiful bodies of females are being sold as commercial property, the identity and dignity of women are being associated with money, which will overturn people's base line of virtue. Even though this comment is a bit radical, it shows, to some extent, the public's aversion to the commercialized female phenomenon.

Whether women want to be nude or not is their freedom of choice, as long as they don't corrupt public morals. However, it makes me feel disgusted when caring for women's health is mixed up with the sexual features of women. Why do they attach "care" to vulgarity?

Wei Zhi (resident of Changsha City): Such words as pretty young women, half-nude and pink normally are symbols of pornography and can easily make people think the other way around instead of caring for health. After all, people will comprehend the cultural symbols according to their habit. Perhaps, it is the reason why people are criticizing the ad.

We can make it milder. For instance, we can change the combination of three beautiful young women into older and younger ones with a moderate appearance, and change the background pink color, with its sexual implication. In addition, the designers can downsize the sponsors' names so as to make the ad less commercialized. In this way, people can not only get the message of the meaningful pink ribbon activity but also feel at ease when seeing the ad.

Not a big deal

Kuang Shengyuan (freelance writer): Three beautiful young ladies, in order to arouse people's awareness of women's health, appear half-nude in a public service advertisement. Consequently, one of them was told to quit her job, and all three ladies were criticized by netizens. Some of the criticisms are insulting and harmful.

I have seen their photo on the Internet. Though three ladies appear half-nude, the photo is not at all pornographic, and there is appropriate covering of their private body parts. The three ladies formed a photo giving people aesthetic enjoyment. I, as a normal young man, feel their power through this ad. I think that if someone's lust is provoked by seeing such a photo, it is not the ladies' fault, but it is the fault of the people with degraded minds.

Currently, there are two extreme comments on the nude body. Some people believe that all nudity is art--even real estate promoters use skimpily clad women to attract more customers. On the other hand, some people tend to believe that all nude bodies are evil and that nudity is manipulated for profit. At present, human body art is constantly under criticism. The three ladies, just half-nude, have attracted enormous criticism from the public. The two extremes bear the same essentials: People lack a true understanding and scientific knowledge of the human body. Instead, they view the art of the human body from an outdated viewpoint of virtue.

Of course, it is still open to question whether it is necessary to use half-nude female bodies to appeal to the public's awareness of female health. However, the criticism should have nothing to do with the participants. People need to discuss the phenomenon on an equal and civilized basis instead of being insulting or humiliating.

Yang Tao (commentator with China Procuratorate Daily website): From my point of view, we should conduct a three-faceted analysis of this event from the perspectives of the law, the public mindset and professional virtue. Only in this way can we reach a true conclusion on this phenomenon.

From the legal perspective, this public service advertisement doesn't go against the law. China's Advertising Law prescribes that advertisements may not have any content that hinders social stability, endangers the safety of life or property, harms the public interest, hinders the public order or violates good social customs, and should not have pornographic, superstitious, horrid, violent or unpleasant content. Judged by this standard, this advertisement, which is claimed to be half-nude, is not serious at all. If we look at it carefully, we may find that the ad is more like an artistic picture of the three women. Therefore, from a legal perspective, the ad is spotless.

From the public's perspective, two of the three ladies are local anchors who are well known to a large audience. I believe that the public service advertisement can be accepted by the public. Think about 10 years ago, when we could hardly imagine women dressed in tank tops. But now, it seems a trend for women to dress that way. Our citizens have long been used to half-nude advertisements, which appear here and there. They won't denounce the ad due to the performers' profession. Furthermore, they are doing this for the sake of public welfare. I believe people will understand them.

From the perspective of professional virtue, can the television anchors appear in the half-nude ad? I don't think it is a problem. This behavior has nothing to do with their professional virtue, and will not have a negative impact on their professional image or the image of the television station they are from. There is no law saying that anchors should not appear in an ad. Of course, it is another case if the TV station has stated clearly in its contract that anchors shouldn't do so.

To sum up, there is no cause for criticism from any of the above-mentioned perspectives. I want to raise one question, though--will the ad have a negative impact on young children? In my opinion, this ad should be put in special locations rather than on the ad board near major bus stations.

Wu Ming (resident of Jiangsu Province): How to appreciate this half-nude ad reflects people's attitude toward life. If we view this ad from the perspective of appealing for women's health, a sacred feeling may stem from the bottom of our heart: To protect women is "to protect mankind; mother's health is the health of all humans." The three ladies are sending this message through their healthy bodies. The appeal for female health is just a reflection of a main theme of today's civilized world. Facing the three half-nude women, we should appreciate their performance from a healthy and civilized perspective, while setting aside vulgar prejudice.