Beijing is festooned with gigantic billboards extolling the virtues of luxurious accommodation and leaving no doubt that a prestigious address is a symbol of wealth, power and status.

But this naked drive to lure deep-pocketed clients into buying up expensive real estate has raised the ire of the local government. Officials have slammed the billboards saying they undermine the goal of building a harmonious society.

Beijing's mayor said that the exaggerated terms used on these prolific real estate billboards like "supreme luxury," "utmost prestige," "extreme comfort," and "hedonism" does not promote harmony in the city, as these expensive apartments are way beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.

Debate over the billboards is widespread after the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a local advisory body, proposed that advertisements should not overstress wealth and luxury, as it may lead to ill-feeling between the poor and the rich by further exposing the yawning gap in the two extremes of society.

Committee members believe the advertisements should be of better taste and quality.

Yet while some real estate brokers admitted that the advertising was excessive and could have some negative impacts on society, they noted that their promotion was only to meet the demand of consumers for luxury housing.

The more luxurious the houses are, the higher the house prices and profits will be. And it's this huge profit margin that is the major reason for developers to focus on luxury housing. They depend on these extravagant billboard ads to attract consumers, say many observers.

Because of this, many, including the CPPCC members, are calling for the government to take measures to deal with these billboards, preventing them from magnifying the existing gap between different social classes.

But while billboards offering homes that will remain dreams for most are contentious, what is really hurting the majority is that even general housing is now too expensive. Common citizens believe that the focus should be on affordable housing for all, instead of banning stinging commercials.

Billboards fuel disharmony

Wei Qing (hlj.rednet.cn): A city belongs to all those who live in it, including the rich and the poor and in most cases, the poor make up the majority. This means a city must design its social system in a way that can meet demand. However, numerous billboards are alienating cities from poor residents leading to the conclusion that more emphasis is placed on pleasing the rich.

U.S. scholar John Kenneth Galbraith mentions in his book The Affluent Society that a rational lifestyle means one that is comfortable and convenient, but not overly comfortable and convenient. Luxury advertising, however, is seducing people to buy houses they are not in real need of. By overly stimulating people's demand for these houses, real estate developers mean to offload these surplus high-end products quickly. As a result, those who actually can't afford these houses, but want them, are taking out large loans and over spending. This will not only result in inflation and a slack real estate market, but also trigger many social problems.

When erecting their billboards, real estate developers focus too much on profits to realize their social responsibilities. While the ads help to satisfy the vanity of the rich, they widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Yu Yan (Guangzhou Daily): We have many reasons to doubt the credibility of these billboards. China does not have many so-called luxurious houses. In order to push house prices sky-high and make big profits, real estate developers deliberately describe their houses as luxurious. These ads are actually violating the bottom line of morality.

Undoubtedly, ubiquitous billboards will hurt the ordinary people, as they will feel lost in the city they used to regard as home. The billboards will also intensify the opposition and hostility among different social classes. Actually, the word "luxury" appears not only in real estate advertisements, but also in ads for automobiles, jewelry and clothing. In modern society, equality is seen as one of the basic social principles. Fancy billboards, however, will surely undermine social harmony.

Lu Zhijian (www.chinacourt.org): By putting up the many billboards and encouraging luxury spending, real estate developers want to grab all the profits they can. From the economic perspective, as long as it can stir up people's desire to spend and bring profits, no matter how exaggerated it is, it's all right. However, currently, Chinese society is faced with the critical problem of social polarization and these ads will undoubtedly hurt the feelings of the masses.

These billboards deliberately magnify the wealthy's sense of superiority. They make the wealthy arrogant and aggressive, forgetting about their sense of social responsibility and morality. Strong evidence of this is that China's rich class, which possesses 80 percent of the country's wealth, contributes less than 15 percent of the nation's total charity donations. Their often unscrupulous actions are fueling people's hatred for the rich and making the disadvantaged group feel further marginalized.

Through over spending, the rich are trying to flaunt their wealth and as a result society will be filled with extravagance, resulting in a huge waste of money.

Wang Shichuan (Dahe Daily): Behind the many billboards lies the distorted wealth outlook. Why are the real estate developers doing everything they can to seduce the rich? Because many wealthy people like to show off. These billboards in the real estate industry reflect the large disparity between the rich and the poor in China. Originally, there was nothing wrong with wealth or with luxury housing. However, today, while some people own several upmarket houses, on the other end of the scale some do not even have roofs over their heads.