(Yicai Global) May 7 -- Chinese video platform iQiyi has apologized for the huge wastage caused by the use of a sponsor’s milk products to vote for contestants in its boy band show, which led to the suspension of ‘Youth With You’ by regulators earlier this week.

Fans of the program have been filmed buying huge volumes of Mengniu Dairy milk cartons, stacked up as high as a wall, and employing people to open them up to get QR voting codes printed on the inside of the caps. The milk is then poured straight into the gutter. This is in direct contravention of the country’s Anti-Food Waste Law brought in on April 29.

“We have heard the criticism from our users and deeply regret the ‘milk pouring’ incident,” Beijing-based iQiyi said on its Weibo account yesterday. iQiyi is opposed to all food waste and will now close all voting channels with 'Youth With You' Season Three and will work with the product sponsor to handle its goods appropriately.

Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region-based Mengniu has been a sponsor of Youth With You since 2019. It prints QR codes on the inside of its bottle caps which voters need to scan in order to vote for the contestants they like. These caps are even being sold on e-commerce sites such as Taobao and Xianyu for as much as CNY45 (USD7) each. Some e-retailers acquire the caps in bulk to sell on their platforms.

“Voting on online variety shows must not involve the forced purchase of products or memberships,” the regulator said last February. Youth With You was taken off the air on May 4 by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau. iQiyi will follow the rules, the company said.

Editor: Kim Taylor