The importance of advertisement cannot be lowballed, but at times they are accused of misguiding people at large. When such accusations are proved, some advertisements are scraped off from media. That did happen with ads endorsing alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. But how can we forget brand extension? And these are deployed to bypass the advertisement ban.
Surrogate advertising is prominently seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law. Advertisement for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are injurious to heath are prohibited by law in several countries and hence these companies have to come up with several other products that might have the same brand name and indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same brand.
Few surrogate advertisements shown in print, electronic and outdoor media are - Bagpiper soda and cassettes & CDs, Haywards soda, Derby special soda, Gilbey green aqua, Royal Challenge golf accessories and mineral water, Kingfisher mineral water, White Mischief holidays, Smirnoff cassettes & CDs, Imperial Blue cassettes & CDs, Teacher's achievement awards etc.
But do you think that the laws framed to curb surrogate advertisement such as Cable Television Network (Amendment) Rules 2009 are effective? How about OOH media tool?
Tune into the coverage of Formula 1 racing and you will see cars racing around circuits of the world with the names and logos of tobacco and liquor companies emblazoned on every part of the vehicle and the driver, and do you still remember Royal Challengers (Royal Challenge) Bangalore, and how about Wills Lifestyle(Wills)? Does this mean that ITC cannot advertise its products in Indian events even though it is a major contributor to the exchequer in terms of excise and duties? And the list continues!
But I think that instead of discussing more on this substitute adverisemet, we should focus more on - If it is legal to manufacture, distribute and sell a product, why should it be illegal to promote the sale of that product?
I don’t think anyone can answer that question convincingly. If it has been established conclusively that cigarette smoking kills, why is it that it is available to us?
Mail us your thought on this at splconquest@gmail.com
The Reason why these things cant be advertised is- if they start advertising, Cigarette will become a fashion statement which would turn into addiction.
ReplyDeleteJust see how much the sales of Cigarettes has reduced in Delhi with the ban on Public Smoking.
These things have to be done very cautiously as any wrong thing will make the public erupt like a volcano.
It's really true that this has curb down smoking in public places to a large extent. But do you think that there should be regulation on the promotion of surrogate advertisement as well, specifically on radio and print media and other out of home advertisement channels?
ReplyDeletein country like India,people are mad for 3 things-politics,cricket and movies.if law legalized advertisement of products like cigarette and alcohol then marketer choose brand ambassador from any of the 3 options and people follow them madly.
ReplyDeleteIt is better to banned these advertisement in mass media like TV,Fm etc. Surrogated advertisement is a better way to promote these products then direct advertisement. i agree that this cause difficulty for the marketer for marketing the product but better for the society.