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| The
Gopal Zarda ad in question in Chitralekha's 3 May issue |
The argument that
the concerned magazines put forth was that their magazine issue hit
the stands almost 10 days before the date of issue which is printed
on the magazine. Speaking to indiantelevision.com,
Chitralekha's chief editor Bharat Kapadia explained, "Our
3 May issue which carried the tobacco ads was closed in April and
hit the stands on 24 April itself. The magazine issue is dated for
our convenience only." Kapadia further said that the ban was
on the advertisers restraining them from advertising their product
and not on the media.
Chitralekha's one full page colour ad cost Rs 72,500 and
with the ban coming into effect the magazine will undergo a revenue
loss of almost Rs 4.2 - 4.5 million. "We cannot help the loss
of revenue with the implementation of the ban. While there is no
substitute for tobacco products, we will try and expand our base
to cover up for the loss," said Kapadia. Keeping aside the
ban that will monetarily affect him and his magazine, Kapadia who
is the chairman of the Advertising Standards Council (ASC) of India
is personally in favour of the ban and is happy that it has finally
come into effect.
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| The
Babul Zarda ad in the May issue of Filmfare magazine |
While no official statement was forthcoming from Filmfare;
sources in the magazine did reveal the same as Kapadia that the
May issue of Filmfare had already hit the stands in mid-April.
A full page colour ad in Filmfare costs as much as Rs 1,40,000.
So the loss of revenue can be well imagined.
On the other hand an unforthcoming Outlook vice president
advertising R Rajmohan when queried about how stringent the ban
seemed to be considering the fact that May issues of some magazines
carry such ads said, "I cannot comment on this as I haven't
seen the magazines you are referring to." When questioned further
about Outlook's policy on the ban Rajmohan said matter of
factly, "We will not carry any ads which are banned."
In the wake of this, it may also be recalled that indiantelevision.com
had earlier reported
on how the Indian government which brought about this ban on promotional
activities of tobacco and tobacco-related products was clueless
about the effective implementation and monitoring of the ban and
still doesn't have a proper mechanism in place for the same.
Also notable is the fact that Chitralekha's website www.chitralekha.com
hosted a cricket contest during the Indo Pak cricket series called
'Live from Pakistan' Cricket IQ series which was sponsored by Babul
Zarda (which can still be seen on the website). While this particular
contest does not violate any rules since it took place before the
ban was implemented, it is a matter of debate whether the ads in
the May issue of the magazines breach the law or not.
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