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Q: Despite the social media backlash, some iconic personalities continuing to feature in ads promoting surrogates for alcohol and pan masala. Are we being too prudish and should we let the biggies make some monies?
A: A classic case of ‘dharam sankat’ for the entrepreneur—ie the promoter has to run the business with all the imperatives of growth and keep the survival of employees in mind. On the other hand, there are ethical- and health-related issues. Finally, another stakeholder in the whole exercise is the Brand Endorser. It’s an economic engine, bereft of any other social costs.
In any dilemma like this one, needs to decode who gets benefitted by the nebulous nature of the subject. All the stakeholders are benefitted, apart from the government. In a country of functional anarchy, obfuscation has economic value. ASCI alone can’t fight it as protocols to protect the interest of the consumers could not be clearly fixed. So a ‘chalta hai’ attitude dominates the discourse on the subject. And polity pontificates about self-regulation. So consumers have to look after themselves through the maze of disinformation, till a solution is found.