drinking: india’s ad agencies = brilliant
February 15, 2007 by Cash
I for one have always found it patently ridiculous that hard liquor ads can’t be shown on TV in the US.
Meanwhile, beer flows freely on the small screen.
It’s been my experience that slurping suds can be just as ‘detremental’ (ha!) to my sobriety as sipping a refreshing gin & diet tonic.
I was rather amused then in reading an article about the way Indian advertisers skirt similar regulations.
There are two hilarious elements to the story.
First, the inginuity;
Alcohol advertising is banned in India. Brewers have used different methods to get around the ban, sometimes promoting non-alcoholic drinks with near-identical labels to the alcoholic ones.
Second, the response to protests Mohanlal (an Indian movie star currently appearing in booze ads) has received;
Mohanlal has brushed aside criticism, suggesting that those campaigning against his advertisements do something better - like cleaning up the garbage accumulating on the roads
Wise words indeed. Meanwhile Mohanlal and I will raise a King Fisher in your honor.
Read the whole BBC article here
Technorati Tags: indian culture, television, comedy, humor, alcohol, beer, ads, prohibition
Oh liquor guru, I have a question for you. Is Bacardi not considered hard liquor? I thought they had those creepy claymation commercials for their Bacardi Limon. Maybe I am mistaken. Please enlighten!
Smart girl! I’m apparently showcasing my dissociation from television over the last 10 years or so:
“After dropping its 50-year voluntary ban on broadcast advertising in 1996, the liquor industry has greatly expanded its ad presence on cable and independent broadcast stations and has intensified pressure to get liquor ads on network television. Those lobbying efforts succeeded in mid-December, 2001, when General Electric’s NBC network ended its voluntary ban on hard-liquor ads. On December 14, NBC announced a multimillion-dollar advertising contract with alcoholic-beverage conglomerate, Guinness-UDV (whose brands include Tanqueray gin, Johnnie Walker scotch, Smirnoff vodka, and Smirnoff Ice).”
Anyone: Are the networks showing these ads now?
I’ve seen stoli adds. Good songs in them…
I’ve seen Smirnoff commercials saying how great they are and how tasty their vodka is. I usually start laughing at the commercial because I know it is a blatant lie. I’ve also seen Tanqueray gin. There is some random black guy serving no point in the commercial other than to confuse you. I suppose working in TV does have its benefits, like being able to watch liquor commercials and making me want to drink more…
Lucky lady. Smirnoff definitely = Pukus Maximus
Tony Sinclair
and that’s how you Tanqueray
“The foppish weirdo who wants you to drink Tanqueray”