On October 22, the Hangzhou Xihu District People’s Court opened a trial, but it hasn’t started yet

A roll call was held for a company to answer “how many goods were sold and how much was actually donated” Money” is difficult? Regarding the knife on the neck, Nongfu Spring has given a definite answer with practical actions

Since this year, Nongfu Spring has been a bit troubled, with lawsuits and constant doubts.

The "Shuiyuan Gate" incident is not over yet, and we are in another "one penny" integrity crisis.

On August 11, the "Public Welfare Times" under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs published an article "Nongfu Spring's "one-cent" donation questioned" on the front page, questioning Nongfu Spring's one-cent advertisement. The article stated that Nongfu Spring has an annual sales volume of 1.5 billion to 2 billion bottles. According to its advertisement, from 2001 to 2008, Nongfu Spring should have invested at least 15 million yuan into the student fund every year. However, in fact, the public information that can be found The cash donation is only 5 million yuan. As soon as the article was published, a dramatic scene occurred. Not only was the report reprinted and followed up by almost all media, a foundation even contacted Nongfu Spring, asking it to donate the undonated portion to itself.

On August 14, the China Association of Social Work, the organizer of Philanthropy Times, suddenly announced that Nongfu Spring, which was accused of fraud in the "One Penny Charity" incident, was excluded from the fifth outstanding event in 2009. Outside the scope of corporate citizenship activity selection.

Faced with such fierce questioning from the public, Nongfu Spring could not sit still. On August 14 and 18, Nongfu Spring issued two statements online, high-profile counterattacks against the Philanthropy Times and the China Association of Social Work. Later, a reputation lawsuit was filed against the two in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

Donate 5 million and get back 5 million

On September 2, "Philanthropy Times" received a summons from the court.

"Our article is very objective and does not say that Nongfu Spring has not donated. We just want to know how much water Nongfu Spring has sold over the years, how much money it has donated, and whether it has helped poor children." Philanthropy Times Zhao Guanjun, director of the Information Department, said.

But what is strange is that Nongfu Spring did not directly answer the media and the public’s questions about “One Cent”. Instead, it sued the Public Welfare Times and the Public Welfare Times on the grounds of “reputation damage”. The organizer demanded a public apology from the two defendants and compensation of RMB 5 million.

Regarding the so-called right of reputation, Nongfu Spring claimed that it was a well-known trademark recognized by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The publication of this article seriously damaged the company's image.

Regarding this point, Zhao Guanjun found it a bit incredible, "Being sued itself is very funny. Generally speaking, once it constitutes damage to reputation, we must first check whether the report is untrue, but Nongfu Spring did not What is even more bizarre is the claim amount of 5 million yuan. We don’t know how the money was calculated. The only explanation that can be considered now is that they once donated 5 million yuan and now want to take it back.

It is reported that the reputation lawsuit will be heard in the Xihu District People’s Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province on October 22.

Currently, Founder of Public Welfare Times is actively preparing to respond to the lawsuit and has organized a team of more than a dozen lawyers. Enthusiastic people including volunteers, lawyers associations, law societies, and law research institutes have expressed support.

In fact, as a media outlet sued by Nongfu Spring, the Public Welfare Times is not the first. Before this, Nongfu Spring had sued three media outlets over the "Shuiyuan Gate" incident.

Anyone familiar with Nongfu Spring will understand that in 2009, this well-known company fell into an unprecedented crisis. Both of the company's ads were hit hard and were bombarded by the media. First, its famous advertisement "Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet", and then its award-winning advertisement "Drink a bottle of water, donate a penny". For a national enterprise, this is a devastating blow.

In this regard, Nongfu Spring urgently adopted media public relations and planned and organized a large-scale source-finding activity of "Experience Thousand Island Lake and Witness the Water Source of Nongfu Spring" to allow consumers to experience the water source in person and get rid of the integrity crisis. However, this crisis has not yet been completely resolved, and another wave of "one penny" crisis has arrived. With such intensive questioning, Nongfu Spring believes that this is a suspicion of malicious hype and unfair competition behind the scenes. It is suspected that it has offended its opponents, and many media are prepared to come under the instructions of competitors.

In this regard, Philanthropy Times stated that the newspaper has no secrets and has never dealt with Nongfu Spring before. As a newspaper under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, this report is not about Nongfu Spring, but to cooperate with the upcoming "Charity Information Disclosure Management Regulations" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. This article is just one of four series of reports. “We hope that through reporting, we can promote the openness and transparency of domestic charity information.”

As for whether Nongfu Spring’s alternative counterattack has difficulties, we have no way of knowing, because from August 11 to now, Nongfu Spring has He refused to be interviewed by the media because "all our leaders are abroad." But some people in the industry said: The integrity of a company is the cost of survival. It is difficult for a brand to grow. If it does not change, it will be difficult to survive.

The Sunshine Project is accused of having no beginning and no end

"By 2008, the Sunshine Project will bring the joy of sports to 200,000 children." Although it has been seven years, people are still somewhat moved when talking about Nongfu Spring’s “One Penny” advertisement in 2002: a rich baritone, a group of running children, and a sensational text, “From now on, For every bottle of Nongfu Spring you drink, you donate a penny to the children’s desires.”

2006 is the fourth year since the Nongfu Spring Sunshine Project was launched. In this year, "a bottle of water costs one penny. For every bottle of water you drink, you donate a penny to the children in the water source area." As part of the "One Cent" series, the "Drinking Water and Thinking of Its Origin" advertisement was broadcast on CCTV and local stations, and the public's enthusiasm for "drinking water to help students" also reached its peak.

Public Welfare Times reported that according to insiders, Nongfu Spring did not fulfill its promise as claimed in the advertisement, donating one penny to the children in the water source area for drinking a bottle of water.

"In fact, as mentioned in the article, there is a penny for the Sunshine Project and a penny for the "Drink Water and Think of Its Source" campaign. Both activities are until 2008. It is not just a penny. It's just a few cents." Zhao Guanjun came to this conclusion after carefully reading the reporter's manuscript, "But what we focus on is the cent of the 'Sunshine Project'."

The media can find out. The only cash donated by Nongfu Spring for the Sunshine Project is: On June 5, 2006, Nongfu Spring cooperated with the Soong Ching Ling Foundation and injected 5 million to establish the "Drinking Water Thinking of Its Source" scholarship fund to help Changbai Mountain, Qiandao Lake, Danjiangkou, Wanlv Lake and other four A child from a water source. This activity is limited to 2006, and the time agreed by both parties is from January to July. Nongfu Spring also mentioned in the "Statement on Nongfu Spring's "One Cent" Donation Campaign" released on August 18 this year that the actual donation amount for this event was 5,007,563 yuan (of which 7,563 yuan was proceeds from the charity sale).

According to insiders, at a meeting in Guangzhou, an insider of Nongfu Spring Company said that the company sells 1.5 billion to 2 billion bottles of pure water a year. Calculating this way, we need to donate 15 million yuan every year. In 8 years, it should be more than 100 million yuan, not 5 million yuan.

Then “Nongfu Spring’s donation dropped by 10 million” was widely circulated by the online media.

It is understood that the "One Penny" project started in 2001. The first penny project is to donate one penny to the 2008 Beijing Olympics for every bottle of water sold.

In 2002, the theme of the "One Cent" operation was changed to "Sunshine Project", and a total of 5.05 million yuan worth of sports equipment was sponsored to help schools in poor areas improve sports facilities.

But this 5.05 million yuan of sports equipment can only be obtained from Nongfu Shanquan. However, consumers do not know when it was donated, how it was donated, and where it was donated.

In 2002, a media release and even a popular advertisement at the time mentioned that the Sunshine Project activities would end in 2008.

Information obtained by the media shows that in 2007 and 2008, the "One Cent" project did not have any donation activities.

According to the latest statistics from the China Beverage Industry Association, the total sales of packaged drinking water nationwide in 2008 was 24.7558 million tons, an increase of 37% from 1811.87 tons in 2007. Among them, Master Kong continues to aspire to be the "King of Water" with 4.03 million tons, followed by Wahaha and Nongfu Spring in second and third place respectively. Last year's sales were all over one million tons.

If it can be determined that Nongfu Spring only donated 5 million yuan in seven years, anyone can calculate the annual sales volume of Nongfu Spring, which will be a very small number.

"This is impossible, it's ridiculous." Zhao Guanjun said, Nongfu Spring is one of the top three sales companies in the beverage industry. How can a top three company sell so little?

However, it is impossible for a company to announce its sales volume. A person from the Soong Ching Ling Foundation said that even when they cooperated, the foundation could not check its sales volume. The amount donated was the amount, and it was impossible to interfere. Too much interference will dampen the enthusiasm of the enterprise.

Donations are made in the name of consumers, but the company does not announce its sales volume and the destination of donations. It is not open and transparent, making it difficult for people to grasp corporate charity information. From this point of view, the country urgently needs charity information such as The introduction of information disclosure regulations and laws further regulates corporate charitable activities.

Since March and April, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has begun discussing the promulgation of relevant laws and regulations. At present, the "Charity Information Disclosure Management Regulations" have been basically drafted and are awaiting approval from the State Council.

An unsophisticated response statement

Regarding the article "Nongfu Spring's "one penny" donation questioned" published by Philanthropy Times on August 11 and three days later, sponsored by Philanthropy Times The China Social Work Association made a high-profile claim to the media that Nongfu Spring Company was excluded from participating in the "2009 Fifth Excellent Corporate Citizen" selection event because of its "fake donations." Nongfu Spring said in a statement on August 18, 2009 that the two parties "deliberately fabricated and distorted facts, which have caused great harm to Nongfu Spring's corporate image and brand image. Our company has begun to take legal action against the above-mentioned institutions." ". Although when you open the official website of Nongfu Spring, you can see no other content except the picture link of the "Experience Qiandao Lake and Witness Nongfu Spring" activity, but this statement can still be found online.

In the statement, Nongfu Spring also fully considered the "Water Source Gate" and "One-cent Fake Donation" incidents, believing that "this is a series of carefully planned and deliberate incidents aimed at slandering Nongfu Spring's good corporate reputation." and brand image”.

"The 5th Excellent Corporate Citizenship in 2009 was jointly organized by CCTV Economic Channel, Tencent Foundation, and China Social Citizenship Committee. Why are only China Social Citizenship Committee and Philanthropy Times the prosecution units? Where are the two units?" Public Welfare Times questioned this.

Nongfu Spring also highlighted in its statement that from January 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006, Nongfu Spring Company donated one cent for every bottle of Nongfu Spring sold. The total donation of 5,007,563 yuan for the "Drinking Water and Thinking of Its Source" student aid activity was due to the company and the Soong Ching Ling Foundation confirming that during the activity, the company printed and sold 500 million bottles with the "Drinking Water and Thinking of Its Source" one-cent campaign logo. Natural aquatic products.

"Donations with labels and those without labels are not donations, but there is no mention in the advertisement that please buy water with labels. This does not make sense." Some netizens complained to farmers online Shanquan expressed dissatisfaction with such an explanation of "hiding the truth from the truth".

Finally, in the statement, Nongfu Spring briefly listed the incomplete statistics of its social welfare history: including Olympic bid, typhoon, China's manned space project, etc.

The fact is that the words "Buy Nongfu Spring with logo" were not mentioned or appeared in the Nongfu Spring advertisements in 2002 or 2006. What the public is still familiar with is "drink a bottle of water and donate a penny." Moreover, for an event that was reported by the media to continue until 2008, the only well-documented records are the donation of 5 million yuan in cooperation with the Soong Ching Ling Foundation in 2006 and the donation of 5.05 million yuan worth of sports equipment to an unknown source in 2002. This is How to explain this?

"We just want you to tell us how much you donated to the Sunshine Project. But except for the donation in 2006, the statement did not mention the rest. We asked how much you donated in the past eight years and whether you have received any. When I received the invoice, I replied that I had donated 5 million yuan in six months, which was obviously wrong.” This response made the public welfare newspaper feel dumbfounded.

One penny triggers thinking

“Whether you donate or not, when you donate, who you donate to, how much your sales are, and how much you should donate.

Only by publishing these figures is the only way for Nongfu Spring to resolve its credibility crisis. "Some netizens left a message on the Internet.

However, this is precisely the most difficult problem for Nongfu Spring. They can only "avoid the important and ignore the trivial matter. ”

Not only the Public Welfare Times, but even the public is not satisfied with Nongfu Spring’s answer.

my country’s “Advertising Law” clearly stipulates that “advertisements shall not contain false content and shall not "Deceive and mislead consumers", "Advertisers, advertising operators, and advertising publishers engaged in advertising activities should abide by laws and administrative regulations, and follow the principles of fairness, good faith and credibility."

Nongfu Spring obviously violated this According to the principle, if there is really no donation, it should be misleading consumers and suspected of advertising fraud. In this regard, some insiders believe that from an advertising perspective, for every bottle of Nongfu Spring drinking natural water sold, Nongfu Spring Company donates on behalf of consumers. One penny is used for the Sunshine Project. If you fail to fulfill your promise according to the advertising law, you will be punished.

But Nongfu Spring is an enterprise, not a society. This punishment is obviously not something that the Ministry of Civil Affairs can accomplish. Instead, it requires the intervention and support of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Consumers Association.

According to the understanding in the advertisement, Nongfu Spring is a penny donated on behalf of consumers, even if the money is taken out of their own pockets. But the money donated also belongs to public consumers, and consumers have the right to know.

According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, any consumer has the right to know that he bought Nongfu Spring. A bottle of water, where does this penny go?

Lawyer Deng Liang from the Beijing branch of Shanghai Huisheng Law Firm believes that Nongfu Spring’s commercial advertisement has an obvious sales nature and is not a public service advertisement. According to the "Public Welfare Donation Law of the People's Republic of China", only public welfare social groups and public welfare non-profit institutions can accept natural persons and legal persons. For-profit corporate entities cannot accept donations and have no right to manage donated property. Nongfu Spring’s fundraising behavior of a public nature is obviously not supported by the law.

Under the current situation. , the general operation method of public fundraising is cooperation between enterprises and foundations, and people are not convinced that companies only implement public fundraising, but this is exactly the case with Nongfu Spring.

After the one-cent fake donation incident was exposed by the media, many people were even dissatisfied. Citizens want to initiate a civil lawsuit to sue Nongfu Spring. Before going to press, the reporter learned from the assistant of Mr. Wang Hai, a well-known domestic anti-counterfeiter, that Wang Hai has collected relevant evidence and will go to the state regarding the one-cent advertising issue of Nongfu Spring. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce reported it, and Wang Hai is now in Beijing, doing notarization and other related preparatory work.

"A piece of money does reflect the problems in charity information disclosure. "Who should disclose information, how to disclose information, and to whom.

In response to the lawsuit, the Public Welfare Times said, "We will definitely win this lawsuit, but winning the lawsuit is not the goal. We hope Through this event, the development of national charity can be promoted to some extent. ”

Open Nongfu Spring’s 2002 “one-cent” advertisement, “A skipping rope worth two yuan a piece, a racket worth 20 yuan a pair, a decent basketball stand... From now on, every Drink a bottle of Nongfu Spring and you will donate a penny for the children’s desire.” The rich voice is still there, but now for the majority of consumers, it looks and sounds a little different. ■< /p>