India Reportedly Poised to Crack Down on Alcohol Sales With Near-Total Ban on Advertising

Seagram’s Blenders Pride Whisky is one of several brands at the center of a proposed ban targeting surrogate ads in India. (Photo: Seagram’s)

India is preparing a potential significant blow against the alcohol industry with a suite of regulations banning sponsorships and so-called “surrogate” ads, Reuters reported Sunday. If implemented, the laws could reshape India’s $45 billion alcohol market, the eighth-largest by volume in the world.

Direct alcohol and tobacco advertising have been banned across the country since 1995.

Surrogate ads avoid regulations by superimposing iconography onto phony products. Take, for instance, actress Alia Bhatt’s campaign for Seagram’s Blenders Pride Glassware, in which she struts a fashion walkway surrounded by slogans like “my life, my pride.” Though Seagram’s may produce glassware in some capacity, most consumers will recognize the name as a prominent whisky distiller and Blenders Pride as its latest release.

In the lower-left corner of the video, you can spot a Blenders Pride label wrapped around a non-existent bottle, as if prodding viewers to make the mental jump to the intended product.

Elsewhere, Turbong Beer was once promoted as “Turbong Classic Tonic Water.” Paying homage to the most enduring of alcohol advertisement tropes, a shy man is seen gathering the courage to perform on stage by cracking open a bottle of his favorite drink. Black & White Blended Scotch copied the playbook a few months later with a video campaign for “Black & White Ginger Ale.”

Seagram’s, Turbong and Black & White are owned by Pernod Ricard, Carlsberg Group and Diageo respectively, multibillion-dollar international alcohol giants with much to gain and lose in the Indian market.

The new legislation — expected to take effect next month — would levy fines of up to $60,000 against manufacturers engaging in surrogate advertising.

Pernod reportedly generates a tenth of its global revenue from India. Diageo controls 17% of the country’s malt market. Both companies already face dwindling prospects in the region after their subsidiaries were separately accused of corruption; a defacto ban on their preferred method of advertising could prove catastrophic.

“You can’t take a circuitous way to promote products,” consumer affairs and draft rules official Nidhi Khare told Reuters. “If we find ads to be surrogate and misleading, then even those who are endorsing (products), including celebrities, will be held responsible.”

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