NEW DELHI: Big posters showing Sunny Leone endorsing a contraceptive, which have sprung up in Gujarat ahead of Navratra, has raised eyebrows. Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has taken the matter with the Consumer Affairs department. The organisation said that although they have not used the word ‘condom’ on their banner, yet the intention is very clear as the combination of words like ‘play’, ‘love’ and ‘Navratri’ are coined above the large logo of the company.
Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of CAIT, while objecting to the advertisement, said that the manufacturers of the contraceptive has shoved aside the marketing ethics. “Their large banners in cities across Gujarat are shouting out to encourage youths to use condoms in the name of Navratri festival,” he said. The advertisement has also provoked reactions on social media with many deriding it as a cheap promotional tactic.
Khandelwal has called upon the consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan Ram to take immediate cognisance of the advertisement and direct the concerned officials to take appropriate action.
There is a provision for punishment under the new Consumer Protection Bill, which will be presented before the Union Cabinet and would be tabled in the coming winter session of Parliament. A celebrity endorsing a product would be held liable for the quality and can be fined upto Rs 50 lakh or even banned from endorsing any other product for upto one year.
Officials said that the draft of the bill had been cleared by a group of ministers headed by finance minister Arun Jaitely. The CAIT has also urged the passage of the Consumer Protection Bill, which is pending before the Parliament, must be passed in its next session so that Brand Ambassadors can be brought under the ambit of the said Act. Debate on whether brand ambassadors should be made liable for misleading advertisements, erupted after Nestle’s Maggi noodles was found to contain harmful subantances.
Two Bollywood actors came under scrutiny for their endorsement of the brand.