Netizens not in love with matchmaking site advert

In the ad, every time she visits her grandmother the young woman is asked whether she's married. [photo / weibo]

A matchmaking website has been accused of peddling "obsolete ethics" in an ad which sees a young woman take a husband in order to please her grandmother.

Angry web users have called for the advertisement for baihe.com, which has been broadcast on major TV channels since the Chinese New Year holiday, to be banned.

In the ad, every time she visits her grandmother the young woman is asked whether she's married. On the final occasion her grandmother is ill in bed.

The young woman then resolves to marry and, as there's no time to waste, visits Baihe.

In the final scene, wearing a wedding dress, she visits her ill grandmother with her husband and says she married because "love could not wait."

But many web users say the advert projects a twisted concept of marriage.

One netizen, surnamed Chai, who launched a campaign against the ad, said the portrayals are offensive.

"It ensnares users with obsolete ethics and morals, and should be banned," Chai said on his Weibo microblog site.

Chai's calls for the ban and an apology from Baihe had been reposted 24,000 times by yesterday evening.

One web user said the ad conveys "horrible ideas that women are nothing if they don't marry, no matter how outstanding they are."

Another said "love and marriage should not come from fulfilling family wishes."

The controversy reflects the pressures placed on young Chinese to settle down, as women in their late-20s and men in their mid-30s are sometimes called "leftover" people.

Candy Cai, a single 31-year -old Shanghainese working at a private company, said she is asked the same question every Spring Festival.

"I told them I would not compromise until I find a really suitable man," she said.

Mark Wang, a 26-year-old single reporter, said he was badgered about having a girlfriend when he returned to his hometown in Shandong Province during the holiday.

"Young people should be given freedom in pursuit of their true love," Wang said.

Baihe said it was sorry if its ad put pressure on singles.