Tobacco companies violate ad norms

In a clear violation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003, (COPT), a non-governmental organisation, Salaam Bombay has exposed how tobacco brands are indulging in rampant surrogate advertising to promote their product under the guise of selling ‘pan masalas’. A recent survey conducted among 3,000 Mumbaikars revealed that majority of them associated ‘pan masala’ with gutka. The participants of the survey were shown flash cards consisting of pan masala advertisements that are usually seen on billboards and BEST buses across the city.

“Gutka companies are promoting their tobacco products by advertising them as pan masalas. The end users perceive pan masala to be gutkas and our study confirmed that. The section 5 of COPT act, disallows any such advertisement – direct or indirect in nature when it comes to tobacco products,” said Devika Chadda of Salaam Bombay foundation.The foundation has already written to Advertising Council of India (ACI) asking them to take action against such brands for indirectly advertising tobacco products. “We will even take up the matter with the civic body and the BEST and ask them to not allow their property to be vehicles for promoting such products,” said Chadda.

The test
Two groups were selected for the study, which included children (12 to 18 years) and adults (19 to 50 years).
The respondents were exposed to different flash cards of three pan masala brands. 82 per cent of children and 84 per cent of adults responded to the first flash card by saying that it is a gutka whereas 9 per cent children and 7 per cent adults said that it was a pan masala. Similarly, when the flash card of the second brand was shown, 62 per cent children and 71 per cent of adults thought that pan masala was gutka and the figures for the same question for the third brand were 85 per cent for both the groups.

84% Adults responded to the first flash card calling it a gutka