Canto-pop newcomer Juno Mak's record label has taken the unusual step of publishing ads denying that people have been paid to pose as fans by cheering and chasing after him.
Universal Music (Hong Kong) took out half-page ads in several Chinese newspapers Monday. The ad denies celebrity magazines' recent claims that fans had been hired to cheer for the 18-year-old singer during his public appearances.
"Why do we need things like this when he has his own fans already?" Angus Chan, spokesman for Universal Music (Hong Kong), said Tuesday.
Chan said the ad also was intended to counter rumors spread through messages posted on a local Chinese-language entertainment Web site.
Mak's debut album, "On the Road," has been selling well, Chan said, but he declined to say how many copies had been sold.
Mak, whose father is Clement Mak, chairman of Hong Kong-listed company CCT Telecom, launched his career in June and has since won a following of some 600 fans, Chan said.
The term Canto-pop refers to popular songs in Cantonese, the Chinese dialect most widely spoken in Hong Kong and in many overseas Chinese communities.