If I am not your cup of tea, then how about a cup of coffee…!! Well that’s what most of the companies in the business of alcohol and tobacco are resorting to in present times. Pleasurable were those days when the managers simply sat back and enjoyed their bank accounts flourish until the snake of the bush hissed on the untamed growth of TV Commercials which made alcohol consumption sound more like waters of the holy divine, pure, untouched and fulfilling.
In the year 2000, the ministry of Information and broadcasting barred the TV channels from telecasting liquor and cigarettes advertisements. Well a job well begun is half done, but a job half done is a job half undone. The Ministry did enough to bar the telecast of advertisements of alcohol and liquor brands but not enough to control their presence in the minds of the consumers. The devil was shrewd, even more than the ministry ever perceived it to be and it returned in the disguise of a saint. They surrogated their very means of reaching the masses, they resorted to Surrogate Advertising.
Surrogate advertising is advertising which embeds a brand or product message inside an advertisement which is ostensibly for another brand or product is often looked upon as a menial mode of putting the message across and for those lying idle a question to debate upon- whether it is ethical or not?
Taking the ball from here we analyze both the black and the white side of it, the rough and the smooth. So first what needs to be clarified is whether there was any need to ban the commercials of liquor and tobacco.
Compared to countries in the western part of the planet the lifestyle of India is completely varying, In India often a social stigma is attached towards consumption of alcohol, which is not in the western countries and that is too a larger extent related to the lifestyle that we live in. The economic variation in our country is so vast that it fails to bring people on the same platform of thinking and perception. When people belonging to the upper socio economic classification of India consumer liquor that’s because they like to (keeping exceptions apart), when people belonging to the lower socio economic class of India consume liquor its in most cases because they “need” to give themselves that feeling of pleasure and relaxation post consumption and it is this feeling that gives way to uncontrolled consumption which directly affects their consciousness and presence of mind and they tend to vomit out every frustration of their life in manners of beating their wives or some other common stories that we have often come across. Definitely the scenario Is witnessed in the houses of riches and the educated as well but there is a considerable difference in the frequency between the two.
This was point number one, that government wanted to arrest this social evil from expanding its wings, but then why did it have to ban the commercials, rather if it was so stringent on such things then why not ban the industry itself. Surprisingly, as per the results of the Indian Advertising Survey, the number of people who get directly influenced by TV Advertisements is a whooping 431 million and there are other 237 million who get indirectly influenced by these commercials. The commercials that are aired often show a young flamboyant individual who when consumes alcohol attracts girls all around him and there is success rolling all along his away. By banning these commercials the government wanted to ensure that youths and other people do not resort to consumption just by being influenced by these ads, they had to make sure that if at all any one consumes it precisely because of their own interest. Well in that interest I do feel curbing the telecast of these ads was social.
The next question is whether surrogate advertising is ethical or not. I suppose as long as there is nothing unsocial an industry has full rights to promote its brands in whatever way they feel like. These business offer the maximum revenue to the Indian Government and it is this money which is used in the upliftment of India, there are no questions rose on why we are using the income from these unsocial components for the development of our country. There are a lot of arguments that float around that if they really have to promote the brand then why not in any other name, well with due respect to all of them I believe It would be wise to give them at least this much liberty to take control of their brand names. I agree that yes it does increase brand recall of something that is considered “socially unright” but it still does not influence people to start consumption as otherwise an advertisement would do.
To give the entire discussion a statement, I strongly believe that banning the commercials was wise and advertising surrogately, there is nothing unethical about it. Well, as I always say, this is just my point of view and I am open to discussions at all times.
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