National

Government bans surrogate advertisements

NEW DELHI: Surrogate advertisements — a medium used by many a tobacco and liquor brand to side-step the law that does not allow such products to be advertised — have been banned by the Government.

The necessary amendment has been made to the Cable Television Networks Rules (CTNR), 1994, through a gazette notification.

As per the notification, “no advertisement shall be permitted which promotes directly or indirectly production, sale or consumption of cigarettes, tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or other intoxicants.”

Issued on February 25 it closes the window of opportunity for surrogate advertising provided to liquor and cigarette companies by an August 2006 amendment to the CTNR and reverts to the regime that existed prior to the relaxation.

The 2006 amendment allowed advertisements of products which shared a brand name or logo with any tobacco or liquor product with several caveats. No reference — direct or indirect — could be made to the prohibited products in any form and the “story board” or visual could depict only the product being advertised.

Besides disallowing nuanced references, the “relaxed regime” mandated that the advertisement could not use particular colours, layout, presentations or situations associated with the prohibited products.

The relaxation was allowed by the Government in view of the blatant violation of the ban on tobacco and liquor advertisements by companies which launched new products like soda and glasses — “brand extension” in advertising parlance — to circumvent the Advertising Code in the CTNR.

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