A departmental store in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, recently hosted a kissing competition in which more than 40 young couples took part. According to the rules, the couple locked in a kiss for the longest time would be declared the winners, and the award awaiting them was a smartphone. Although the competition drew a lot of media attention, it did nothing to promote social morality. The commercialized kissing competition set a bad example for young people and aggravated the moral decline. Efforts to promote social and moral values would suffer a serious blow if such kissing contests became a fashion, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

The city of Changsha, capital of Hunan province, organized a similar kissing competition in which 1,000 couples took part. Kissing is a way to express love. It is natural for a couple to kiss even in public places. But it's ridiculous for couples to lock in a kiss in a street under the direction of the hosts of a competition just to win a smartphone.

Such vulgar kissing contests represent neither romance nor love, because the hosts encourage even strangers - from the same gender if possible - to kiss each other. Such shows go against the established norms of Chinese culture.

The hosts of the Jinhua competition ignored the fact that many minors would be among the viewers and the negative impact such a farcical show would have on them. In fact, the negative impact such vulgar contests have on children has never been a concern of businesspeople.

The government, and business and industry administration departments need to closely monitor such publicity activities to ensure they do not make fun of morality. It's time businesspeople and event managers realized that there are better and more effective ways of promoting a product or service than organizing vulgar shows.