Wednesday, May 09, 2007

OOH goes ouch in Mumbai


Here we go again. Mumbai’s corporators are proposing a censor board to ensure that “obscene” billboards are not put up in the city.
Also on the anvil is a ban on cigarette and tobacco brands using the medium.


The implications of the censor board concept? Every single creative will have to be cleared by the board before it makes its way to the hoarding sites. That will mean delays and/or corruption, and will prevent nimble tactical reactions like the one above.
There is no indication as to the composition of the proposed censor board – will it include professionals from the advertising and marketing fraternities?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This industry is a perfect case of No-Self-Discipline...it's like it calls for trouble or shall i say we (i am fortunately a part of it, hence) invite it with open arms!

The supplier-is desperate for a booking...
The Agency, is like not sure whether the creative will work or not...so if the brief is sell spectacle frames...the brainstorm session will yield the following 'put an attractive face put any frame and yes don't forget the cleavage please'
The clients...should start relying more on their product and less on skin!
the municipal authorities should also start worrying about the monsoons, one would argue and yes why not...its like switching off Fashion TV - will it work ?
I wonder....

Philip said...

The other day i saw a pic circulating in the net about "Go Air" having another hoarding above Kingfisher which mentioned something like "We havent changed".

From the looks of it, the pic looked fake. Like to throw some light on that? ;)

Anant Rangaswami said...

Philip --

I saw the Go Air one as well. Clearly a Photoshop job.

Anonymous said...

I am not too sure why you chose to put the Kingfisher vs Jet airways ad to complement the subject of the post which talk about obscene ads. The KF vs Jet ad is a pure case of ambush marketing .. why is this being marked as obscene? We have had pepsi and coke do the same in the past.

Anant Rangaswami said...

Arjun,

Perhaps you could re-read the post when you're not in a hurry.
The reference to the KF Vs Jet issue is in the context of delays that could be caused by censorship -- delays that could prevent such tactical exercises.

Anonymous said...

Yup .. !! premature comment. Apologies.