Surrogate advertisements have gained the popularity since the day advertisement for hazardous things were banned by the government, things that can cause harm to people directly like liquor, paan masala, cigarettes, and others, their open advertisement or their direct branding is banned, so companies use surrogate advertisements; they use musicals, sell it as mouth fresheners, create storylines so that the products are sold.
What are Surrogate advertisements?
Advertisements done by the companies for their product in the name of any other service but with the same brand are know as surrogate advertisements, the direct advertisement is not done to prevent any legal charges, this saves them from legal actions and also promotes the product but in 2022 government had banned the surrogate ads and introduced new policies for the same, to prevent any spread of misinformation or in other words to stop the consumer for being misled into some other thing.
Youth is always looking for ideas and they always have someone to follow around be it a sports star, an actor, or any other star, as the Cricket World Cup 2023 is going on and the number of surrogate ads is very high, including zero Alcohol drinks to Sodas to Alcoholic beverages and many more things. Kids or youngsters watching the ads done by their ideal or a famous personality makes them want to have that specified thing, they tend to follow their star and then end up being misled.
Many superstars pose in the ads for Alcohol, paan masala, and Soda: soda is often taken as a very minute thing but it can be the cause of various diseases. These ads even promote gambling by portraying it as a game or any other app just for fun, causing addiction among the masses.
The 2023 Cricket World Cup in itself has seven alcoholic brands involved with it including Jacob’s Creek, Royal Stag, Bira91, Pernod Ricard India, Black & White, Diageo, and Kingfisher, which is a huge number, as the target audience carries from youngsters to old age people and in this mostly being youngsters. Superstars who are the youth icons, who somehow inspire the youth and promote these kinds of activities are very highly demeaning for them and their fandom.
Representing the future or guiding the future is the biggest responsibility one can have and starts should take it responsibly not in a way just to earn some profit out of it because they are the ones who can create a difference and promote a healthy lifestyle for the future of India.
The government wants these ads to be fair and not misleading as it can cause a lot of harm to the viewer; being unknown of the product and then consuming it makes it even more hazardous. The one who violates the CCPA (Central Consumer Production Authority) guidelines can be fined starting from 10 lakhs to 50 lakhs, as the liquor advertisement has been banned since 1995 in India but still, it continues through surrogate advertisement.
IPL (Indian Premier League), one of the world’s most famous cricket leagues is highly promoted or sponsored by several brands, the target audience for this league is a lot, international as well as national, and again the people watching the league the most are the current young leaving a very bad effect on them, promoting a thing that is injurious to health to an extended that it misleads a youth or promoted by a sensation causing the consumption of the said thing can create havocs and should be avoided.
