The Indian government is all set to bowl a bouncer to the tobacco industry by ensuring the promotion of surrogate advertisements out from the cricket stadium in the country. These ads, in the form of mouth fresheners or otherwise, have been pretty much part of most cricketing venues for years.
Surrogate advertising comes in as a loophole, since advertising for tobacco products is outrightly illegal in India, under both the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and the Cable Television Network Rules. Companies exploit it by use of similar packaging, branding, and names to indicate another product yet still promote their smokeless tobacco products, mostly to the young audience.
This has outraged the Health Ministry. They will petition the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to ensure that all tobacco-related advertising is effectively banned, including these surrogate ones. The issue is that such a development could very well impose self-regulation on surrogate advertising due to the youth’s vulnerability to such allurements.
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“In fact, cricket matches are extremely popular among youngsters,” an official source quoted by Mint said. “There have been various occurrences of surrogate smokeless tobacco ads being more visible at match grounds, and featuring celebrity endorsements. This indirectly lures youngsters.”
Former official health of the Delhi government, Dr. S.K. Arora, quoted the influence of celebrities to back these products. He also mentioned how tricky the advertisements are and how they rope in a variety of former and active cricketers to support these brands so the authorities have very little to do.
NO TOBACCO OR GUTKA ADS IN STADIUM. 🏟️
– The Union Health Ministry planning to ask the BCCI to stop promoting all Tobacco and Gutka ads in cricket stadiums. (LiveMint). pic.twitter.com/5s2iQij5nb
— Aadarsh (@AadarshParab) July 15, 2024
“These ads are in any case surrogate ads for popular tobacco brands,” said Dr. Arora. “They have replaced terms like ‘gutka’ and ‘tobacco’ with terms like ‘pan masala’ and ‘elaichi’ to bypass the law. When I was the head of Delhi State Tobacco Control, we issued notices over pan masala ads to Bollywood, Hollywood and cricket celebrities. “For most ad campaigns, we immediately curbed their promotion then and there. “But they have now resorted to advertising flavoured elaichi, which is nothing but a surrogate advertisement for pushing the consumption of tobacco in another form.”
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Dr. Arora talked about this very point citing the existing legal framework. ” Laws like COTPA and the Food Safety Standards Act provide the teeth to punish these endorsements,” he said. ” But the stature of these celebrities and lack of rigorous punishment allows them to escape penalties.”
State associations manage the banners with advertisements inside the stadium and not the BCCI. Television and digital advertising is managed by the broadcasters or streaming platforms themselves. Thus, when the Health Ministry gives an instruction to the BCCI, the said instructions are conveyed to those responsible for it.
