Surrogate Advertising: An Overview

Siddhi Mahapatra, Diya Mahapatra & Dr. Abhilasha Raj, Assistant Professor, Amity Law School Noida

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of surrogate advertising, a practice wherein products are indirectly promoted by associating them with different, often unrelated, products. It focuses on industries like alcohol and tobacco, where creative strategies are applied to work around rules against direct promotion. The paper discusses various forms of surrogate advertising, like using different product categories or unclear images to indirectly show restricted products. In India, laws like The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Code strictly forbid surrogate promotion of alcohol and tobacco. The paper touches upon the ethical concerns about deceptive advertising, questioning transparency, and consumer empowerment. The research includes 2 Case studies - Vimal Paan Masala and Imperial Blue, which exemplify how brands navigate regulations. The paper also touches on the challenges and loopholes in implementing a strict ban on surrogate advertising and emphasizes the need for evolving legal frameworks to address contemporary marketing dynamics. It highlights the role of social media in raising consumer awareness and holding celebrities accountable for endorsing potentially harmful products. In conclusion, it advocates for stricter enforcement of regulations to curb unethical surrogate advertising and safeguard public health.