Shameless advertising of alcoholic products; Mockery of Nepal’s rule of law
‘Kahi navako jatra Hadigauma’ is an apt phrase when it comes to Nepal. The most ridiculous demands are often presented by Nepali ‘protestors’. You guys must remember the time when taxi drivers went on a strike demanding that they should be allowed to operate without adopting the meter system. Similarly, the Advertising Association of Nepa(AAN) is currently in the news for demanding the lifting of restrictions on alcohol advertisement in Nepal! As if restrictions really matter! So, this article will deal with the following three facets. First, we will talk about the total apathy alcohol brands have shown towards Nepal’s restrictions. Second, we will highlight the irrelevance of AAN while talking about the damage they are trying to bring to Nepalese people, especially kids. Moreover, we emphasize that institutions like AAN and marketing agencies should instead focus on fostering creativity.
Currently, alcoholic brand, Polska, has been displaying its ad on digital boards in busy areas like Thapathali and Putalisadak. It is general knowledge that Putalisadak is mostly frequented by high school graduates aspiring to study abroad. So, either the brand is totally incapable of understanding this, or rather these young kids are its target audience. While we certainly won’t claim that this is the only brand that has explicitly promoted their alcoholic beverage, this is perhaps one of the most blaring examples of a brand’s disrespect to Nepalese law. While the law clearly states that promoting any narcotics or alcoholic product is completely prohibited, Polska has dared hosting a digital billboard with the beverage being clearly shown in the bottle in one of the busiest towns in Nepal. So what if colorful sleek marketing attracts young kids? So what if most of the developed nations do not even allow cigarette shops to display tobacco products in their stores? So what if these international brands themselves follow these stringent rules in developed countries like the US and Canada?
Multiple studies have now confirmed that especially young kids are prone to being manipulated by colorful/ fun/ sleek fun ads. While a 10 year old kid can go and buy cigarettes/ liquor from any store without being asked for a valid Id, instead of focusing on this issue, AAN has now resorted to pressurizing the lawmakers to lift the little marketing restrictions that are currently adopted by Nepal. While BrandGuff wants to take AAN to task over this with scathing criticism, it is in fact disheartening that an institution that should focus on bolstering the advertising sector of Nepal is mostly busy with mundane events while going full throttle on behalf of the alcoholic beverage industry. Forget about conducting workshops for startups or lobbying the government to bring positive regulations and laws to promote the advertising sector, AAN and other institutions are busy drinking alcohol and don’t care about whether the vodka bottle they so love in their ‘meetings’ ends up in the hands of a teenager or even worse small kids. What is mind-boggling about this issue is that we at BrandGuff are truly confused whether these officials are complete idiots or whether in spite of understanding the danger of alcohol and tobacco marketing especially to kids, they are lobbying on behalf of the alcohol industry.
Public Health Act-2018 and the Advertising Regulations Act- 2020 completely prohibits any type of marketing when it comes to alcohol and tobacco. Add to that the fact that advertising board has issued a warning against any agencies or brands flouting the Nepalese law. The fact the marketing agencies in Nepal continue to produce advertising materials for these products show the apathy they have towards our law.
Make no mistake! BrandGuff does not believe in hard handed governmental restrictions. We are by no means against the alcoholic beverage industry either. Heck, we love a peg after a hectic day from time to time ourselves! That said, we are against this shameless act of AAN, the alcohol industry and other advertising institutions who are lobbying for a regressive law that could make young kids prone to drinking unhealthy products without having mentally mature enough to make an informed judgment. Instead these institutions have resorted to lying by stating that globally there are little to no restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising. In a country like Canada, a storekeeper can be fined for not hiding the cigarette pack inside a cabinet. Additionally, only the government operates liquor stores with strict regulations including a strict cut off sales time. There is a reason why a mostly unregulated free market like the US and Canada have very tight regulations and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco products. Also, equally shameless is a liquor brand that clearly follows these stringent regulations abroad but disrespects Nepal and Nepalese law because they have no fear of flouting our laws.
We understand that alcohol marketing makes up a significant chunk of advertising revenue of our fledgling advertising sector. That said, marketing agencies should stop acting unethically. Continuing to market alcoholic products is not only criminal, but unethical as well. As mentioned above, most of the developed countries have strict regulations against promotion of harmful products like alcohol and tobacco. Additionally, we have also mentioned studies that prove that colorful and sleek advertising of alcohol and tobacco can attract young kids. Unless these brands and marketing agencies have flouted governmental regulations, intentionally making young kids their target audience, agencies could get creative with surrogate marketing like is the practice globally. Explicitly displaying the bottle, that too without any health warning, in some of the busiest places where kids and young people are in large numbers, is akin to making a mockery of our future and rule of law.
We hope that this article serves as a gentle reminder to media agencies, advertising agencies like AAN and alcoholic brands that our law does not permit such shameless advertising of tobacco and alcohol products. Moreover, we insist that institutions like AAN, Nepal Media Society, ANFA and Media Alliance Nepal should stop peddling lies that Nepal’s laws regarding promotion and marketing of tobacco and alcohol products are stricter than global standards. We hope these institutions instead focus on promoting our advertising sector generally instead of acting like a lobby for one particular sector. If that happens, we would love to ‘cheers’ a shot or two towards that!
