Govt Keen to Prevent Surrogate Ads on Alcohol and Tobacco

To prevent surrogate advertising of alcohol and tobacco products on television, the Government has tabled a paper in Parliament to implement various provisions ensuring this.

It's intended to implement the provisions incorporated in the Cable Television Network Rules 1994 to prevent surrogate advertisements of alcohol and tobacco products on TV.

On Tuesday, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni introduced the paper in both Houses of Parliament. It suggests that if "a product that uses a brand or logo, which is also used for promoting cigarettes and tobacco products, the visual of the advertisement should depict only the product being advertised and not prohibited products in any form or manner".

Stating the proposed rules in connection with the matter, the paper also says that "advertisement must not make any direct or indirect reference to the prohibited products".

Besides, the advertisement should not contain any nuances or phrases promoting prohibited products and also the commercial must not use situations typical for promotion of prohibited products when advertising other products.

The above mentioned rules were issued through a Gazette notification by the Ministry on February 27 this year, and were included in the existing provisions of the Cable Television Network Rules 1994, titled as Cable Television Network (Amendment) Rules 2009.

Source-ANI
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