Letting it all flow out

Bans have always been notoriously difficult to impose, even if they are being done for morally defensible purposes like fighting alcoholism....

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Bans have always been notoriously difficult to impose, even if they are being done for morally defensible purposes like fighting alcoholism. What can work, however, is an efficient regulatory regime sharply focused on what it is required to do.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj seems to have realised this when she suggested in a report this newspaper carried that private channels do a spot of self-regulation on the issue of liquor ads. She wanted them to perceive for themselves the inherent dangers in allowing liquor manufacturers unbridled access to air time and take the necessary corrective action.

In any case, there is at the moment a rather skewed approach to liquor advertising in this country. In the pre-Prasar Bharati days, Doordarshan was bound by a stipulation banning the telecasting of liquor ads, and it continues to follow that norm. For private channels, in contrast, liquor ads are the largest source of revenue, generating, according to one estimate, something likeRs 100 crore a year. Clearly then, the fact that Doordarshan does not accept such advertisements has come as a bonanza for private satellite networks. Therefore, in the interests of creating a level playing field, either Doordarshan should be allowed to beam such ads or the satellite networks must be placed under similar constraints.

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Be that as it may, there are three possible fall-outs of liquor advertising on the visual media which cause concern. For one, it imparts to the activity of drinking alcohol a certain aura of glamour and acceptability, especially since it is invariably the rich and successful who are shown imbibing the stuff on the screen. Alcohol, then, is seen as the ultimate passport to the good life, and drinking it provides conclusive evidence of having arrived. Successful sportsmen, especially cricketers, are often roped in to promote beer and other products, leading people to believe that liquor is also performance-enhancing, much like the Marlboro Man, with his fine physique and roughand tough cowboys ways, had once helped impart a similar appeal to smoking.

Now if ever there is a misleading message it is this one! There is now also a tendency on the part of certain liquor manufacturers to systematically target young, impressionable minds in an effort to carve out new markets. The sales pitch of one particular brand of liquor, directed at the young adult, says it all: “Hey, do your own thing”. In other words, drinking alcohol becomes synonymous with personal liberty and the freedom to defy established norms and conventions which, in turn, is conceived as the natural right of the young. Such advertisements signal a particularly unhappy new trend.

But the Union I&B Minister should also consider other, more creative, ways to counter such attempts at hidden persuasion. Short TV clips, issued in public interest on the pernicious effects of liquor, would go some way in countering the false allure of alcohol ads. The trick, of course, is to do it with as much creativity as liquoradvertisers employ. Unfortunately, public interest advertising, with its high-handed sermonising, has yet to come of age in this country.