Ramadoss' new hate: booze ads on the sly

ADDING FUEL TO FIRE: Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has asked the Govt to ban surrogate ads immediately.

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Keywords: Smoking , Liquor, Surrogate Ads, Anbumani Ramadoss

New Delhi: After a slew of attacks on smoking in films, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is now training his guns on surrogate ads for liquor and tobacco brands. The Minister is planning to take such ads off air.

In an angry letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Ramadoss said: These products bear exactly the same brand name and logo, which we have earlier seen in liquor advertisements. These surrogate advertisements violate the statutory provisions and defeat the very purpose of the ban imposed by the Government on such products... I request you to take appropriate action to ensure that such indirect advertisements of wine, alcohol, liquor and any tobacco products are stopped forthwith in the interest of public health.

Advertisements for tobacco were banned by the Government in 2003 and ads for alcohol banned a year later. But the Health Minister’s campaign against tobacco goes further, even extending to smoking on screen.

In an interview to CNN-IBN, Ramadoss had said, “When I said movies should not have smoking scenes we have statistics which show that 52 per cent of children have their first puff because of movie celebrities.”

Ramadoss had also requested superstar Shah Rukh Khan to quit smoking onscreen. “I have already made appeals to Shah Rukh Khan and others. But I would be happy to do it again and through CNN-IBN, I again say: Please don't smoke in your movies Mr Shah Rukh Khan.”

In the past, ban on surrogate advertising on tobacco products has not been successful, as the court has put a stay on it. Therefore, how successful the ban on surrogate advertising of liqour and alcohol products would be is a million dollar question.

As of now, it seems the ball is in the Information and Broadcasting ministry’s court.