Actress Liu Tao arrives on the red carpet for the opening gala during the 72nd Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, on May 14. The 72nd Cannes Film Festival is held here from May 14 to 25. Photo: Xinhua

With the focus on the annual Cannes Film Festival, some Chinese agencies have been helping internet celebrities buy their way to the red carpet show to promote themselves.

On China's e-commerce platform taobao.com, a Global Times reporter on Thursday found several shops selling invitation letters to the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, claiming clients could walk along the red carpet with celebrities and have their photos taken with the world's most prominent celebrities for up to 300,000 yuan ($43,615). 

Travel agencies and beauty pageant companies also offered the service, with one beauty pageant company in South China's Guangdong Province saying that it will take a tour group of 50 people including internet celebrities to the red carpet show on Saturday, Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News reported on Wednesday.

Chinese internet celebrities and online shoppers from social media have been seen wearing ostentatious clothes and making odd poses at the carpet shows this year, and some were reportedly driven away by security for staying too long, the Beijing News reported.

"In previous years, several Chinese actresses were the object of lively discussions for wearing impressive Chinese-style clothes at the Cannes Film Festival, and some entertainment companies consider the behavior a shortcut to fame and are glad to send their potential stars to the show to gain publicity," a Beijing-based fashion designer surnamed Tao told the Global Times on Thursday.

The topic hashtagged "Paying 100,000 yuan to walk along Cannes' red carpet show" has been viewed 50 million times on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo as of press time, with many netizens criticizing their vanity and poor fashion taste and calling them "shameful."

However, the majority of the Chinese celebrities walking on the carpet are invited by the organizer and have brought their high-profile film works to the festival, a publicity team leader of a Beijing-based entertainment agency, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"We really don't encourage celebrities to attend international film festival without decent works. Otherwise it could be a stain on their image," she said.

She noted more and more Chinese film directors and actors have gained worldwide popularity in recent years at international film festivals including being invited to chair the jury at these events.