Ban on condom commercials ‘counterproductive’ for India: Brand Guru

Tough break for condom manufacturers who will now face restrictions on airing of their commercials for contraceptives. The government has restricted condom ads being aired on television for nearly 16 hours in the day for fear of it being ‘indecent for children’.

These ads will not be able to be aired from 6am to 10pm on TV.

“It has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that some channels carry advertisements of condoms repeatedly which are alleged to be indecent especially for children,” an advisory from the Ministry said.

“I do believe ‘indecent’ is a subjective word. Society has a way of accepting more and more indecent as it progresses. There are bodies that can look into it (commercials) and point out indecent pieces of advertising and those ads can be taken off. But to go and put condom advertising into a slot to be aired beyond the night hours is very counterproductive for a country like India,” Harish Bijoor, 'Brand Guru' told Zeebiz.

There were 156 lakh abortions in India in 2015, Lancet Global Health report showed. Data from National Family Health Survey in 2015-16 revealed 450 lakh women are not using modern contraceptives.

India is one of the few nations in the world that registered a drop in contraceptive use from 56.3% in 2005-06 to 53.5% in 2015-16, the report showed.

Now surrogate advertising is a kind of promotional activity which disguises the product by another.

When asked if condom brands should resort to surrogate advertising, Bijoor said, “I don’t think you should put surrogate on condom advertising. Condoms should be advertised overtly. Because if you really look at it there are two product categories which have had problems in India – the sanitary napkin and the condom. This country is somehow very genital shy. Condom advertising must be in the forefront but then again it can be advertised in different ways and different degrees. It could be just a matter of facts, it could be aspirational, emotional, etc.”

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