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The Federal Government has ordered
cigarette companies to carry a
pictorial representation of skull and
bones to show that "tobacco kills" and
"smoking kills" warning manufacturers
and vendors of serious criminal
consequence for non-compliance.
Prohibition of Advertising and
Regulation of Trade and Commerce,
Production, Supply and Distribution)
Act, 2003 provides for stringent
penalty for non-compliance but
cigarette and alcohol companies
circumvent laws with impunity.
The practice of using the same brand
for non-existent products or
non-revenue products is called
"surrogate advertising" and companies
argue openly on their "right" to
protect brands and no Government
functionary, organization, or Ministry
has ever challenged this assertion.
Increasing number of advertisements in
television, cinemas, billboards,
magazines, and newspapers depict good
looking and seemingly successful
people smoking and drinking and
enjoying life. Film actors are also
recruited to smoke on screen and have
influenced a lot of teenage behavior
and encouraged smoking at a very young
age.
Even a respectable national English
newspaper like
The Hindu has petitioned the Supreme
Court asking to be allowed to display
cigarette advertisements overtly.
In a report, the World Health
Organization (WHO) has shown how
Bollywood promotes smoking in an
organized manner. Motivated with such
studies, the Health Ministry, in
recent news for the wrong reasons, has
introduced legislation that will
ban smoking in movies.
However, there are huge gaps in how
smoking and alcohol companies continue
to circumvent inconvenient laws. A
liquor baron flew entire groups of
Members of Parliament (MP) on his
private jet to see a cricket match in
South Africa and later became an MP
himself. Worse, he has started an
airline that shares a name with his
flagship beer brand and there is no
challenge from any individual,
organization, or Government agency.
Cigarette shops selling imported
brands are freely available right next
to schools and in malls where children
throng.
This latest Government move is most
welcome in a nation where a good
number of the people cannot read and
certainly not English which is what is
used to warn the public. It would be
most useful if the Government were to
bring better curbs on surrogate
advertisement and institute stiffer
monetary penalties for violations. The
current measure threaten only about
USD 100 for violations and in a weak
enforcement regime means a wink and a
nod for organized tobacco and alcohol
companies to continue what they are
doing.
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