On May 14, 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Guidelines for the Regulation of Medical Advertising. This development is relevant to beauty salon operations because many lifestyle beauty businesses can easily describe care services, product effects, or customer cases in overly medicalized terms on social media posts, short videos, group-buying pages, or during consultations. The key issue for owners is whether promotional content could cause customers to mistakenly believe that the salon provides medical services or achieves treatment results.
News Summary
Publication date: May 14, 2025. Implementation or application status: Following their issuance, the Guidelines are available as a reference for market regulation authorities when carrying out medical advertising supervision. Applicable region: Nationwide. Current status: Issued. Primary official sources: Announcements of the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising.
Key Changes or Regulatory Points
The Guidelines refine medical advertising regulation on the basis of the Advertising Law, the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, the Measures for the Administration of Medical Advertising, and other relevant provisions. They specifically address issues including appearance anxiety in medical aesthetics advertising, the promotion of medical aesthetics services to minors, absolute wording, and non-medical institutions claiming to provide medical services. Although lifestyle beauty salons may not necessarily publish medical advertisements, crossing the boundary in promotional content may still create compliance risks.
Practical Impact on Beauty Salon Operations
Salon promotions should clearly explain “what services can be provided” rather than presenting care services as treatment. Expressions such as “remove pigmentation,” “treat acne,” “anti-aging,” “repair,” and “improve” should be reviewed individually in light of the actual nature of the service, the basis for the product claims, and the boundaries of the service. Customer cases must not be used to attract sales through exaggerated comparisons, implied treatment results, or the creation of anxiety.
Which Salons Require Particular Attention
Beauty salons that provide skin management, photoelectric device services, problem-skin care, post-procedure care-related services, or customer referrals in cooperation with medical aesthetics institutions should treat promotional boundaries as a high-priority inspection item. Salons without medical qualifications should be especially careful to avoid wording that could cause customers to misunderstand the business as providing medical diagnosis or treatment.
What Should Be Checked Now
- Whether social media posts, short videos, or group-buying pages contain suggestions of treatment, diagnosis, or medical effects.
- Whether service descriptions present ordinary care as the treatment of a disease or as medical repair.
- Whether customer cases have been authorized and whether they exaggerate results or create anxiety.
- Whether employee scripts can distinguish between lifestyle beauty services, product care, and medical aesthetics.
How to Review Promotions Before Publication
Before publishing each promotional item, the salon can ask the manager to conduct a three-step review: first determine whether the service itself is a lifestyle beauty service or a medical aesthetics service; next assess whether the wording, images, and customer cases could cause customers to misunderstand the service as treatment or diagnosis; and finally verify whether employees can explain the boundaries of the service on a substantiated basis. For wording that is uncertain, it is preferable to revise it to describe the service process, suitable customer groups, and precautions rather than state definite results or improvements to a disease.
What Conclusions Should Not Be Drawn for the Time Being
Do not interpret the Guidelines as meaning that lifestyle beauty services cannot be promoted, and do not mechanically conclude that the use of a particular word will necessarily constitute a violation. A more accurate approach is to assess each matter in light of the specific context, target audience, nature of the service, supporting evidence, and the likelihood of misleading consumers. Where medical aesthetics or advertising disputes are involved, the matter should be reviewed by qualified professionals.
Next Operational Steps
It is recommended that the salon divide commonly used promotional phrases into three categories: service descriptions that may be used directly; expressions requiring supporting evidence or limiting conditions; and medicalized or absolute expressions that cannot be published for the time being. The manager should conduct weekly spot checks of social media posts, group-buying pages, and employees’ private-domain communication scripts. When high-risk wording is identified, take it down first and then conduct a review. The closer a promotion comes to treatment, diagnosis, or guaranteed results, the more cautiously it must be handled. Customer cases posted spontaneously by employees should also be included in the same review system to prevent private-domain content from falling outside salon management. Where the basis for an expression cannot be confirmed, first revise it into an objective service description and retain records of the revisions for future review.
Related Operating Guides, Tools, and Templates
Before publishing promotional content, it is recommended that salons first use How Can Beauty Salons Self-Check Promotional Wording? for a self-review, and then consult How Can Beauty Salons Avoid Compliance Risks in Social Media Promotions? to understand the risks associated with social media promotion. For employee and customer communications, refer to How Should Beauty Salon Sales Scripts Be Designed? to reduce exaggerated promises. Before investing in a service, also use the Beauty Salon Service Investment Risk Assessment Guide to assess the risks.
Official Sources
State Administration for Market Regulation: Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising
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