The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, an American chewing gum manufacturing giant, has been submerged by a barrage of criticism from the Chinese government after one of its advertisements used the Chinese national anthem, reported the Shanghai Morning Post.

The commercial for "Orbit" that was broadcast live in Russia starting January 3 played China's national anthem "The March of the Volunteers," causing a fierce national backlash.

Russian TV stations, including the public Sports Channel, TB3 and CTC, stopped broadcasting the advertisement on January 8.

According to officials working with Chinese embassy in Moscow, the ad first appeared during the Russian New Year holiday, and thus took five days to remove from the airwaves.

The Chinese embassy in Russia said that the advertisement "gravely" sabotaged China's national esteem. "China retains the right to further negotiate with the company", the report said, citing embassy officials.

According to Article 7 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, no advertisement can "contain the national flag, national emblem or the national anthem of the People's Republic of China".

But in Russia, there are no concrete laws governing advertisements, according to the report.
Wrigley representatives said they did not know the music was China's national anthem.

The BBDO company, the affiliate of Wrigley in Russia and the advertisement producer, have issued an apology to Chinese ambassador to Russia Liu Guchang. The company said it did not deliberately harm China's image and esteem.

In another development, Wrigley issued a statement to the Shanghai Morning Post on January 9 saying that it had taken steps to remedy the situation and vowed to be more careful in the future. The statement did not provide details on the steps Wrigley mentioned.