“You can’t take a circuitous way to promote products. If we find ads to be surrogate and misleading, even those who are endorsing, including celebrities, will be held responsible,” Nidhi Khare, Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution, Government of India  was quoted as saying.  Often such ads are promoted by top Bollywood stars who will be also held personally responsible and will be liable for fines if the ads are misleading.

According to the draft, the new rules would also extend to sponsorships and ads for products viewed as brand extensions that share the characteristics of an alcohol brand. Companies like Carlsberg, Diageo, Pernod Ricard and several others may face a penalty of up to Rs 5 million ($60,000) if they continue promoting their products as they are doing now.

The new rules are expected to be issued within a month and could have a significant impact. India is the world’s eighth-largest alcohol market by volume, with annual revenues reaching $45 billion, according to media reports.

The new rules will bring to an end several popular marketing campaigns in recent history in India. For instance, Kingfisher, the largest selling beer-maker in India, is known for its famous “Oh la la la la.le O” jingle with international cricketers while Seagram has continued with its “men will be men’ campaign successfully for nearly two decades to sell its Imperial Blue whisky, marketed as CDs in the surrogate ads, although music CDs have gone out of style. McDowell and a few other producers have been using club soda as a surrogate for many years.

Under the new rules, Carlsberg would no longer be permitted to promote its Tuborg drinking water (with the bottle replicating its beer bottle), by showing film stars at a rooftop party using the slogan “Tilt Your World”, which echoes its beer commercials. Nor would Diageo’s ad on YouTube for its non-alcoholic Black & White ginger ale be permitted. Viewed more than 60 million times to promote this Scotch whisky brand of the same name, will also be banned.

One of the past’s most blatant attempts to cash in on name association which reportedly upset even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was an innovation of Vijay Mallya. The King of Good Times who is now in London awaiting to be extradited to India for his financial shenanigans. He had even named the now defunct airline Kingfisher to draw association with the top selling brand of his company, Kingfisher Beer, thus circumventing the ban on direct alcohol advertising. He even named the Indian Premier League cricket team ‘Royal Challengers Bangalore’ to promote the Indian whisky he produced.

Nidhi Khare has further confirmed to Reuters that celebrities endorsing tobacco and liquor ads will also be taken to task. “If we find ads to be surrogate and misleading, even those who are endorsing, including celebrities, will be held responsible,” she reportedly said, adding that the promoters risk endorsement bans running from one to three years.

One hopes that the Ads featuring one, two ad NOW 3 celebrities promoting the lethal gutka products in the garb of perfumed silver cardamoms will also be banned forthwith. They are known to be carcinogenic and addictive products.

Subhash Arora