SUBMITTED BY:-

BMS 1F1. SONALI VAISH (13295)2. SUSHAR SANGH

(13300)

3.VISHAL(13320)

4. TEJVEER(13305)

5. SHWETA MEENA(13290)

6. YogeshChayal(13323)

AcknowledgementThe success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from many people and we are extremely fortunate to get all this along the completion of our project work. Whatever we have done is only due to such guidance and assistance and we would not forget to thank them.

We respect and thank, PRS ma' for giving us an opportunity to do the project work in Marketing and giving us all her support and guidance which allowed us to complete the project on time. We are extremely grateful to her for her support and guidance though she had busy schedule.

We want to thank our friends for their unlisted encouragement and more over for their timely support and guidance till the completion of our project work.

We are thankful and fortunate enough to get constant encouragement, support and guidance from all Teaching staffs of Department of BMS which helped us in successfully completing our project work. Also, we would like to extend our sincere regards to all the non-teaching staff of department of BMS for their timely support.

CONTENTS1. Definition2. Effectiveness of surrogate advertising3. Motive4. Recent surrogate advertising5. History6. Surrogate advertising in India7. Present legal environment on surrogate advertising8. Types of Surrogate advertising

- IMFL (Indian made foreign liquor)- CML (country made liquor)

9. Major competitors10. Prohibition in India11. Dilemma in Indian government12. Threats of surrogate advertising13. Bargaining power of customers14. Competition based on 15. Advantages and Disadvantages 16. Is surrogate Advertising Ethical or unethical?17. History of liquor in Gandhian time18. Case Study – Pan Masala Advertising are Surrogate

for tobacco Products19. Topic for discussion

What is surrogate advertising?'Surrogate Advertising' is a form of advertising which is used to promote banned products like cigarettes and alcohol,

The banned product (alcohol or cigarettes) may not be projected directly to consumers but rather masked under another product under the same brand name, so that whenever there is mention of that brand, people start associating it with its main product (the alcohol or cigarette).

It is an effective way of communicating the value of a product or service with large exposure to target consumer. It uses different types of appeals to connect to consumers spread across the globe.

It is just a strategy used to generate top of the mind recall. While this continued helping them to promote their liquor through this route as many companies did not even modify the existing advertisements and instead just replaced the text and voice-overs.This is what challenging about surrogate advertisement as for ethical business practices one should not mislead consumer’s especially young generation to lean towards drinking alcohol.

In short It includes:-

Duplicating brand image of one product extensively, in order to promote, another product of the same company.

Use of well established brand, except the original product, to encompass that product.

It is done by complementary products such as Soda, bottled drinking water, fruit juice etc.

Other commonly advertised includes – Music CDs ,apparel and accessories and sports good of the same brand

Effectiveness of surrogate advertisements

According to the inferences drawn from several surveys and interviews, 42 out of 50 people can understand the actual liquor or tobacco product being advertised. Surrogate advertisements do impact a consumer's buying decision as well It also informs about the leading liquor brands thus promote sales.

Motive This is to hammer the brand name in the minds of the consumer and get purchasers acquainted with the firm's branding.

RECENT SURROGATE ADVERTISEMENT: The various surrogate advertisements which are used by manufacturers of whisky and liquor products.

1. Bagpiper: The advertisement of Bagpiper Club Soda is shown at the place of whisky.

2. Royal Stag: Royal Stag instead of advertising whisky shows Music CD and Mega Cricket in the advertisement with theme “Make it Large”.

3. McDowell’s No.l Platinum: Indian Cricket Team skipper MS Dhoni advertises for the sur- rogate product soda and asserts it as “The No. 1 Spirit of Leadership”.

4. Hayward’s 5000: The brand is advertised through soda and packaged drink- ing water. It is well known that Hayward’s 5000 & 10000 are whisky and beer brands respectively due to wide availability in market.

5. Imperial Blue: This whisky is advertised by showing music cd’s in the ad- vertising. i.e., Imperial Blue Music CD’s.This advertisements asserts in story line that “Men will be Men”. It symbolizes Imperial Blue as for masculinity.

6. Royal Challenge: The leading cricketers are shown in advertisement, at the same time music is played. It also advertised with the brand of mineral water.

7. Officer’s Choice: The brand is advertised by showing mineral water and soda. It is shown that ‘OC’ is the brand choice of officers and dynamic people.

History

It is said that birth of surrogate advertising happened in Britain, where housewives started protesting against liquor advertisements which provoked their husbands. The protest rose to a level where liquor advertising had to be banned and brand owners seeing no way out decided to promote fruit juices and soda under the brand name, the concept later emerged as Surrogate Advertisements.

Surrogate Advertising in India

In India extensive surveys resulted in similar findings which showed that liquor ads had direct influence on Consumers purchase behavior, and no sooner the Cable TV Regulation Act banned liquor and cigarette advertisements, thus India gradually adopted surrogate advertisements. Advertisements for liquor and cigarettes have been banned since 1995. So companies usually either go for brand extension and promote the extended products or promote certain products which might not be available in the market, ex- you might not necessarily find a Bacardi

Blast music CD. The excessive pressure of the ban forced companies to focus more on brand building and thus liquor companies started sponsoring and hosting glamorous events, yet many others started distributing t-shirts, caps, key chains, drinking glasses with the brand name displayed on these products.

PRESENT LEGAL ENVIRONMENT ON SURROGATE AD- VERTISING:

A notification issued on 9th August 2006 for The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and The Cable Television.

Networks (Regulation) Act, 1994, states:“Provided that a product that uses a brand name or logo, which is also used for cigarettes, tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or oth- er intoxicants, may be advertised on cable service subject to the following conditions:

• The story board or visual of the advertisement must de- pict only the product being advertised and not the pro- hibited in any form or manner.

• The advertisement must not make any direct or indirect reference to the prohibited products;

• The advertisement must not contain any nuances or phrases promoting prohibited products.

• The advertisement must not use particular colors and layout or presentations associated with prohibited products.

• The advertisement must not use situations typical for promotion of prohibited products when advertising the other products.

• Provided that all such advertisements shall be previewed and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification suitable for unrestricted public exhibition prior to telecast or transmission or retransmission.

(Times of India, 14th March, 2009) the government has introduced a new condition to discourage surrogate advertising. It is now a precondition that products advertised using brand name or logo of any liquor or Cigarette Company is readily available in the market. The order adds that the expenditure on advertising for the product should not be disproportion- ate to the actual sales turnover of the product.

Indian Liquor Industry is divided into 2 broad categories:-

Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL)

Country Made Liquor

Indian made foreign Liquor Industry have market value of INR 8500 Crore against Country made liquor INR 900 Crore in 1999 & is growing at 12-15% P.A over last 2 yrs. Therefore the second one is Shift from country liquor to IMFL because of rising per capita.

IMFL comprises Brown spirits:-whisky, brandy, rum and white spirit vodka & gin having business of INR 8500 crore for the year 2011

Country-made liquor comprises alcoholic beverages made by local breweries.

Major competitors in setting up Liquor IndustriesManufacturer Brands

United Breweries (UB) Group( Bangalore)

King Fisher, Kalyani Black Label, Signature, Blue Riband

Shaw Wallace (Calcutta) Haywards 

Jagajit Industries (Kapurthala, Punjab) Aristocrat

Mohan Meakins (Solan, Himachal Pradesh)

Golden Eagle 

Associated Breweries &  Distilleries (Mumbai)

London Pilsner, Smirnoff, Gilbeys Green Label, Malibu, Archer’s Peach  Schnapps

Legal Environment:-• Ban on direct advertising :-Direct advertising on alcoholic or

beverages or liquor or tobacco products was banned in 1995 due to which manufacturers started taking help of surrogating advertising (or indirect advertising).

• Excise regulations and Licenses :-Before starting the Liquor business (either on small scale or large scale), companies or business is required to get license & register it & there are also some rules which he had to follow.

• ‘Regulated’ industry - movement, prices of intermediate goods (molasses, ethanol) tightly   controlled - state governments exert considerable influence:-The prices of raw-materials (like molasses, ethanol etc.) used in making these items are fully controlled by the state or central govt.

• Subject to licensing under Industrial   (Development and Regulation) Act, 1956:-the business has to register or licensed under the Development & Regulation Act, 1956.

• Cap on licensed capacity; special license  for expansion

• Plethora of duties and taxes from bottling to sales stage; varying from state to state. 

Prohibition in India• Soon after independence, prohibition was imposed in the -

erstwhile state of Bombay.

• The first large-scale movement against alcohol began in the 1970s, when rural women in various parts of the country protested against the sale of liquor in their villages since liquor provoked their husband leads to domestic violence.

• In the year 1995, The Information and Broadcasting ministry of India banned the ads.

• But even after the ban, liquor companies continued to advertise their drinks or liquor in the form of surrogate advertisements. 

History of liquor in Gandhians time:-

• India has come a long way ahead of state of 1930s or 40s

• In 30s, people in state of unemployment & poverty used to spend their spare time in drinking, even if they had no money

• The result was families destroyed due to head of the family being indulged in drinking habit

• Violence caused by drinking problem was a common thing at that time.

After independence:-After independence, India had to abolish selling of liquor

• But no, India is still generating revenues from liquor

• Now, thing is whether drinking liquor is actually bad habit, or it was the situation which demanded Gandhiji to be against liquor

What the study says? According to NIAAA – National Institute on Alcohol Abuse &

Alcoholism, moderate drinkers have lowest death rate compared to heavy drinkers

In another word, if you take liquor as a drug & take in a controlled fashion, it’s good for your health

So, being strictly against liquor or drinking habit is quick or biased judgement

Excess of anything is not good, so is the case with liquor too

Type of surrogate advertising

TV commercials that mention a product for which a company is not known as a way of bringing up the idea of a product for which the company is known.

Sponsoring events and sporting teams is another example of this advertising.

Public service announcements also are commonly used to advertise these products.

Advantages

One of the highest revenue earners for the government. By ways of taxes and duties.

High revenue earners for television channels .

Surrogate advertisements are actually helpful in building a better brand image and awareness.

This brand provides a good value for money. Surrogate advertising allow the marketers of banned products to

get market exposure.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of surrogate advertising is that the public is not so naive that it will favor your product just because you evoke an image in the public mind associated with your product. Probably, laws were made against advertising your product because public opinion already was opposed to it. Laws, after all, are just an extension of preexisting views held by the majority of the people.

Whether the advertising of surrogate of the same brand leads to the recall of original product or remember by replacing the original product with the new legal product under the same brand?

Advertisers of tobacco and liquor are continuously spending a huge amount of money in order to create awareness about their brand through whatever means possible. Billions of rupees spent every year on advertising of a product where the advertiser is not even allowed to flash the name of the product.

Ethical

Surrogate advertising can be used when corporations need to cultivate a picture of social responsibility. As an example, many health fans have criticized adverts for sweet treats aired during children's toons. A company might pull outright advertising in these time slots and instead air a sequence of public service news about eating a well balanced diet, with the reports by coincidence carrying the company's branding. Pharmaceuticals are another product with advertising limitations.

Surrogate advertisements are a debatable topic especially considering the fact that directs advertisements of liquor and tobacco is banned in India. If it is established that these form of advertisements actually increase the brand image and thereby

resulting in increased sales then the whole purpose of banning the direct advertisements is defeated.

In a democratic country one should be permitted to use every means of communicating about the product and services one is legitimately manufacturing and selling like liquor and tobacco.

Unethical

Traditionally, pharmaceutical corporations weren't permitted to publicize prescription medicines. Once this regulation was relaxed, some limitations were left in effect. Using surrogate advertising permits corporations to find a way around laws. For example, the maker of an asthma medicine might sponsor informative commercials about managing asthma, with the medicine branding scattered across the advert to get purchasers used to the brand and to mean that the medicine plays a crucial role in handling asthma.

Surrogate advertising is not only misleading, but also presents false and dishonest information in many cases. It has a very negative effect on the markets as a whole.

in general, the perceptions that govern the attitude of people towards these advertisements is much on the negative side rather than being on the positive side. They neither liked the advertisements nor the favoured them. A large proportion of the respondents felt that surrogate advertising is anti social as it tries to promote the product that is generally considered as harmful for the society, it promotes wrong impressions and tries to fool the customer insulting customer intelligence, leads to moral degradation and is deceptive.

However a few respondents took surrogate advertisements as a way of fair practice, entertaining and associated it with modern life style. A set of respondents were completely unaware of the phenomena of surrogate advertising while a few others were

confused about the same. This research led to the conclusion that whatsoever may be the positive perceptions revealed, still a lot of people perceived surrogate advertising as negative, unethical and immoral.

Its effect extends from the society to the business, from economics to education. In a country like India, a large portion of the income of population is spent of harmful products like cigarettes and alcohol which in the long run is leading to a lot of health hazards. According to the International Wine and Spirit Board, a liquor industry publication – “there will be a jump in the number of people reaching the legal drinking age of 25 within next few years”, in such a case the problem of health hazard is growing and growing at a rather fast pace. The consumption of liquor and cigarettes is increasing every year worldwide.

Banning Liquor Surrogate AdvertisingBANNING LIQUOR ADVERTISEMENTS – AGAIN & INDIAN GOVT. IN DELIMMA

In June 2002, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry of India ordered leading television (TV) broadcasters to ban the telecast of two surrogate ads of liquor brands, McDowell’s No. 1 and Gilbey’s Green Label. The Ministry also put some other brands – Smirnoff Vodka, Hayward’s 5000, Royal Challenge Whiskey and Kingfisher beer – on a ‘watch list.’ The surrogates used by these advertisements ranged from audiocassettes, CDs and perfumes to golf accessories and mineral water. By August 2002, the I&B Ministry had banned 12 advertisements. Leading satellite TV channels, including Zee, Sony, STAR and AajTak were issued show-

cause notices asking them to explain their reason for carrying surrogate liquor advertisements. The channels were asked to adhere strictly to the Cable Television Regulation Act 1995 (Cable TV Act, 1995). As a result, Zee and STAR stopped telecasting the advertisements; AajTak and Sony soon followed suit. In addition, I&B Ministry hired a private monitoring agency to keep a watch on all advertisements for violations of the Act. These developments led to heated debates over the issue over the surrogate advertising by liquor companies. Though the liquor companies involved protested strongly against the I&B Ministry’s decision, they had no choice, but to comply with the regulations. Analysts remarked that the government’s policy was hypocritical. One said, “On the one hand they allow these ‘socially bad’ products to be manufactured and sold (in order to garner revenues) and then they deny the manufacturers the right to propagate knowledge of their products in order to drive sales. If something is  bad and  cannot  be  advertised,  why  allow  it  to  be  sold  at all?” Meanwhile, the government also seemed to be in dilemma. On the one hand, it had to encourage the sales of liquor and tobacco because they were the highest taxed sectors of the Indian economy. On the other hand, there  was also the need to   take  the high moral  ground and reduce  the consumption of such products.

Threat of Substitutes of liquor

• Today with the advancements and up gradation in the standard of living, people are becoming more health conscious and a large chunk of the population has become aware of the fact that Liquor is harmful for health.

• For this a lot of people have shifted their demand from Liquor to juices & other health drinks.

Major substitutes for Liquor are :

• Soft Drinks

• Non-alcoholic drinks

• Coke

• Pepsi

• Other Health drinks

There has been a decline in the sale of liquor in India by 2.5% in the year 2010 which clearly indicates the impact of substitutes and awareness amongst the consumers.

Bargaining Power of Customers:-

• The Liquor industry has witnessed the consumers always at a weaker end.

• There is not much bargaining power in the hands of the consumers in Indian liquor industry as the prices are set by the forces of demand & supply and the demand for liquor here is high as compared to the supply.

• Hence, the producers are at a beneficiary end and charge higher prices.

• In India, a liquor brand is identified and is appreciated only on the basis of its higher price.

• It is an interesting fact that Companies use “High Price” as one of its promotional strategy to attract the consumers.

Major players create competition on the basis of:

– Looks of the liquor bottle

– Pricing the product much higher

– Innovative

– Promotional

– campaign

CASE STUDY OF PAN MASALA

Introduction

Smokeless tobacco use is quite prevalent in India. It was estimated that 96 million out 184 million tobacco users (52%) of India consumed tobacco in smokeless form.Use of 'Gutka' and 'Pan Masala with Tobacco' is a common modality of tobacco use especially among the youth. It has been reported through large-scale representative surveys in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka (2001) that 77.25 and 83.1% of users of gutka or pan masala-containing tobacco, respectively, from the two states, were below the age of 40 years. Four types of pan masala are available in India market, namely, plain pan masala; sweet pan masala; pan masala containing tobacco; gutka. Gutka has been defined as tobacco along with small quantity of pan masala. Growth of pan masala industry was very slow in the 1970s when only plain and sweet pan masala were introduced. However, this industry saw a sharp growth from 1980s onwards, after the introduction of pan masala, containing tobacco and gutka, especially in small sachets (which increased their transportability and cost of single purchase). Often people consider all pan masala to be same and tobacco to be an integral part of the concoction. The smokeless tobacco industry of India seems to have taken advantage of this perception over the last few years and have initiated advertisements of plain pan masala. Some commonly observed advertisements included, Pan Parag, Goa 1000, Shimla, Rajnigandha, etc. While direct advertisements of all tobacco products vanished after promulgation of the comprehensive legislation for tobacco control from 1st May 2004, the advertisements of various pan masala continued, apparently suggesting their nontobacco nature. In fact one such product (Pan Parag) had been advertising about its 0% tobacco contents. In the recent past, a Khaini product advertised itself as 'ChainiKhaini' in print media and on billboards outside Delhi (billboard advertising of tobacco products has been banned in Delhi since 1 January 1997), but on

television the product was mentioned as 'ChainiChaini', without even mentioning the nature of the product. In recent times, this television advertisement shows a sachet mentioning it as ChainiChaini pan masala, but with no major change in the advertisement.

Tobacco control activists have long been criticising these advertisements as indirect tobacco advertisements, but had no means to prove it. This preliminary study was carried out to check whether the advertisements of plain pan masala or some other products with names similar to tobacco products were really the advertisements of the intended products or was surrogate advertisements of their tobacco products.

Methodology

Advertisements of many plain pan masalas or other products with names similar to tobacco products had been observed on television, as well as in print media. Two major television news channels of India were observed to be showing a large number of advertisements of pan masalas or other products bearing similar names as the gutka/chewing tobacco/bidi products. The programmes of two such news channels (Hindi channel AajTak and English channel Headlines Today) were viewed continuously for 24 h on two different days. The programme of Hindi news channel was seen on 22 May 2005 (from 8.30 pm of 21 May 2005 to 8.30 pm of 22 May 2005), whereas the programmes of English news channel were seen on 15 June 2005 (from 11.00 pm of 14 June 2005 to 11.00 pm of 15 June 2005). The frequency and duration of all these advertisements was noted. The programmes were noted on several other days also to assess whether the frequency of these advertisements was similar.

Other variables important to the study related to the total sale value of the gutka products, and the proportion of sale of plain pan masala to gutka or to the total tobacco products. The tobacco companies may not readily provide information on these aspects. The sale value of tobacco products of one of these companies (M/s Kothari Brothers, manufacturers of Pan Parag pan masala and Pan Paraggutka) was available on the Internet, and this information for the most recent available financial year (April 2003 to March 2004) was used for this study.

A large sentinel survey on tobacco use pattern was carried out in the year 2001 in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnatka. The lead author of that study provided additional information on the prevalence of use of plain pan masala and gutka by these communities as observed in the survey. This data helped in assessing the proportion of users of plain pan masala as compared to users of all types of pan masala (irrespective of presence of tobacco).

The rate of advertising for the television channels were noted from the website of the television channels. There were differential rates for different timings. In view of the high level of advertisement provided by the specific product (Pan Parag) and its 24-h distribution on Hindi news channel, the lowest rate given for bulk advertisers was used for further calculations (Rs. 5500 per 10 s). However, the advertisements on the English news channel were concentrated during daytime. Thus, the rate for each of the advertisement was considered, as given by the channel for maximum volume users.

The study adopted the principle of providing the margin of doubt in favor of tobacco companies in case of limited information on the

subject. For example, prevalence of consumption of plain pan masala was observed to be more in the state of Uttar Pradesh (as compared to Karnataka). The prevalence of such products was more in urban areas. Therefore, such proportion as observed from data pertaining to urban Uttar Pradesh was used for the study. Similarly, the rates for advertisement, which might have been paid to the television channel were assessed at the minimum chargeable rates by the channel.

Observation

Advertisements of these products are not limited to the two channels observed under the study. The same advertisements have also been observed on many other television channels. Advertisements of these products also appear in the print media. As such, this study should only be considered as preliminary, and as estimating only the minimum expenses on advertisements by the concerned companies.

During the 24-h telecast on the selected television news channel, five types of advertisements were observed which had names similar to tobacco products.

Three types of advertisements were observed during the telecast of the Hindi news channel. These included, direct advertisements of the product, sponsorship of a programme, and advertisements of a programme on the same channel partially sponsored by these companies. Under the last category, besides mentioning their role as sponsors, details about the product were also mentioned. Total duration of advertisements of these five products turned out to be 1215 s during the 24 h under observation with Pan Parag being the highest contributor for 615 seconds (s).

Only direct advertisements were observed on the English news channel. These advertisements were not seen after midnight till the early hours of the day. The total duration of these advertisements was 825 s, with Pan Parag contributing 420 s.

The total sale value of one of the product being advertised during this period was available on the Internet. The total sale value of M/s Kothari Brothers was Rs. 1676.4 million during the financial year 2003-2004; Rs. 2315.00 million during the financial year 2002-2003; Rs. 2821.60 million during the financial year 2001-2002; Rs. 2114.80 million during the financial year 2000-2001. The latest available figures were used for the purpose of calculations under the study.

The prevalence of use of plain pan masala, gutka and proportion of plain pan masala to these products is given. In view of the principle of providing the margin of doubt in favor of tobacco companies in case of limited or varied information, the maximum observed proportion of use of plain pan masala (among urban men in Uttar Pradesh at 3.8%) was used for further calculations in the study.

Using the values noted from various sources, which shows that the annual sale value of Plain Pan Parag was assessed at Rs. 6.37 crores (Rs. 63.7 million or US $ 1.45 million at currently prevailing exchange rate). On the other hand, the annual cost of advertisements of the same product on two television channels (AajTak and Headlines Today) was estimated to be Rs. 24.46 crore (Rs. 244.6 million or US $ 5.56 million at currently prevailing exchange rate).

Discussion or Conclusion

The annual cost of advertisement of one of the most popular brand of plain pan masala (Pan Parag) far exceeds its annual sale value. The annual cost of advertisement of plain Pan Parag on two television channels alone is 3.8 times its annual sale value. This indicates that the Pan Parag pan masala advertisements are a surrogate for the tobacco product (gutka) the company manufactures under the same brand name. The current estimate of the annual cost of advertisement pertains to only two television channels. It is important to note that similar advertisements have been observed on other television channels, as well as print media. In view of this, the estimated annual advertising cost is an underestimate, and the real differential is likely to be far more than what has been depicted in this study.

The study was carried out with the hypothesis that the advertisements were aimed for promotion of the product itself. Because of this reason any margin of doubt was in favor of the manufacturer of the product. The proportion of use of plain pan masala out of total gutka/pan masala use, as observed among men from urban Uttar Pradesh was used, providing the highest possible proportion for sale of plain pan masala. It is likely that if overall proportion of use of plain pan masala (or plain Pan Parag) out of total gutka and pan masala use were available, the proportion (and thus the sale value) would have been much lower. The exact rates paid by the pan masala companies to the television channel are not known to the authors. The estimates used for the Hindi news television channel were the lowest rates shown on its website, although sponsored and specific time advertisements are known to have differential rates.

Although 24-h quantitative observation for these advertisements was for 1 day for each of the channel, these advertisements have been observed

for a very long period. Many programmes on the two channels were watched again on several days at different timings to ensure that the observations were not a one-time phenomenon. In fact, the timings of these advertisements were more or less constant every day.

Such calculations could have been carried out for each of the brand under study, but the study was limited to one brand in view of the non-availability of sale figures of other brands to the authors. However, the high-volume of advertisements and the knowledge that the proportion of people using plain pan masala is small, suggests that these are also likely to be surrogate for their tobacco products.One could argue that the proportion of sale of this particular brand of plain pan masala may be very high as compared to other brands of plain pan masala. This however, does not seem to be tenable, because most of the popular brands seem to be advertising heavily. Advertisements of other brands of plain pan masala like Shimla, Goa 1000, have also been seen on television, although this study did not find these advertisements on the specific day.The above makes it clear that the advertisements of plain pan masala are a surrogate for promotion of gutka bearing same brand name. The manufacturers have taken advantage of common community thinking that pan masala always has tobacco in it. In fact this kind of confusion had been seen in scientific literature also wherein studies carried out on mutagenesis by pan masala did not mention if the product contained tobacco or not. These advertisements seem to have increased during the recent years when the possibility of their ban started becoming a reality.Trademark diversification and surrogate advertisements are known by cigarette manufacturers.

 Surrogate advertisements by gutka manufacturers in India has been suspected, but could not be proved. Although preliminary, the current

paper provides first objective evidence of surrogate advertisement of any tobacco product.

Brief explanation of the above Case:-

BACKGROUND: Pan masala is a comparatively recent habit in India and is marketed with and without tobacco. Advertisements of tobacco products have been banned in India since 1st May 2004. The advertisements of plain pan masala, which continue in Indian media, have been suspected to be surrogate for tobacco products bearing the same name. The study was carried out to assess whether these advertisements were for the intended product, or for tobacco products with same brand name. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The programme of a popular television Hindi news channel was watched for a 24-h period. Programmes on the same channel and its English counterpart were watched on different days to assess whether the advertisements were repeated. The total duration of telecast of a popular brand of plain pan masala (Pan Parag) was multiplied by the rate charged by the channel to provide the cost of advertisement of this product. The total sale value of the company was multiplied by the proportion of usage of plain pan masala out of gutka plus pan masala habit as observed from a different study, to provide the annual sale value of plain pan masala product under reference. RESULTS: The annual sale value of plain Pan Parag was estimated to be Rs. 67.1 million. The annual cost of the advertisement of the same product on two television channels was estimated at Rs. 244.6 million. CONCLUSION: The advertisements of plain pan masala seen on Indian television are a surrogate for the tobacco products bearing the same name.

Keywords used:-Gutka, Pan masala, Surrogate advertisement.