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Published on September 1, 2007

The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) special committee on the alcohol control bill yesterday decided to allow alcohol TV commercials to be aired from midnight to 5am, despite Channel 7 director Surang Prempree's comment that it effectively amounted to "a total ban" on ads.

More than 1,000 members from 200 anti-alcohol organisations camped outside Parliament hoping for a 24-hour ban, while the committee chaired by Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla considered Article 31/1 of the draft bill proposed by the subcommittee assigned to study the issue.

Article 31/1 provides for a ban on alcohol advertising on radio, television and in movie theatres from 5am to 10pm. Alcoholic ads (except images of bottles), brands and logos can be aired from 10pm to midnight as long as they are followed by a seven-second "warning message".

Commercials can also show images of bottles from midnight to 5am for up to three seconds before the commercial ends, while foreign live telecasts and international live programmes complying with ministerial regulations are exempted from any ban, according to the draft article.

However, committee deputy chairman Wallop Tangkana-nurak proposed that airtime be restricted to midnight to 5am. Many panel members expressed their support for the idea, including Ammar Siamwalla, Banyat Tassaneeyavej and Samran Rodpetch.

The NLA earlier decided that ads for alcoholic drinks could appear in the print media, as long as the products are not endorsed by any celebrity.

Prapan Khoonmee, who heads the subcommittee assigned to study the issue, said that if panel members had other ideas than his subcommittee's proposal of allowing airtime from 10pm to 5am, he would not comment at this stage but would instead wait until the committee discusses the agenda later.

Prapan urged them not to brand anyone opposing the stricter ban as being a representative of the alcohol industry, or even a "murderer".

He said alcoholic drinks were "special products" with many prohibitions due to their impact on youth, but since they were legal, effectively trying to drive them underground would not be fair.

Prapan said he wanted the draft bill to pass in its current form. If implemented and combined with taxation measures, it should provide more income to the government and reduce the amount of drinkers. However, if it was proven ineffective after implementation, he was willing to propose a tougher law himself.

Committee member Surang from Channel 7 said the suggested airtime of just midnight to 5am was tantamount to a total ban, as it was already tough to find ads after 11pm.

At 3.20pm, only seven committee members had voted for the Public Health Ministry's 24-hour ban, while 12 members voted for changing the airtime slot. Eventually, 12 members voted for Wallop's suggestion of midnight to 5am, while five voted for the Prapan subcommittee's proposal.

Later, anti-alcohol advocates' representative Kamron Chudecha read out the group's statement, in which it said they were not satisfied with the committee's decision to allow alcohol ads from midnight to 5am.

Thanking the minority for voting for the total ban, he said the group believed some committee members were nominees for the industry.

The group vowed to fight for the total ban during the next round of discussions, Kamron said, adding that it believes the 200 NLA members must take a proper stance "for the benefit" of the people.

Anti-alcohol advocates claim that manufacturers have invested at least Bt1.5 billion in advertising on television, which Thai children and youths see an average of 4.34 times per day. They believe there are 260,000 new drinkers a year.

However, people associated with the alcohol industry were sceptical of the restricted screening time for ads.

Chatchai Viratyosin, marketing manager of Singha Corp, said the banning of alcohol commercials except from midnight to 5am was "ridiculous".

"They should have banned the ads around the clock," he quipped.

He said limiting advertising time would benefit products that focused on pricing, such as Archa Beer from Thai Beverage. "This brand does not require TV ads to promote brand awareness because the producer focuses only on low price."

The committee, which announced the regulation, does not understand the brand-awareness or brand-creation element of the business. "The advertisements are to promote brand awareness of the product. They does not actually increase unit sales," he said.

In fact, people drink because they are persuaded by their friends - not advertisements - he said.

"The current law is sufficiently strict. The new regulation will simply make the operators play "below the line" to promote sales by lowering prices, which would encourage more people to drink," Chatchai said.

He said the government should focus on the enforcement of current laws rather than introduce more laws to control advertising.

Witawat Jayapani, chief executive of Creative Juice ad agency and president of the Advertising Association of Thailand, said the news did not surprise him because everyone seemed to be prepared for less spending on advertising.

"However, I disagree with the regulation because eventually producers will try to get around the law by cutting prices to boost sales. They will do direct hard-sell to impact on customers. Who will then be responsible if the number of drinkers increases?" he said, adding that Thailand "already has a draconian law".

Witawat said the loss of TV commercial spending as a result of the proposed restriction was unlikely to affect the TV advertising industry much because the total spending on alcohol ads was only Bt1 billion - compared to the overall industry value of Bt90 billion.

He echoed Chatchai's view that the government should be stricter in its law enforcement to curb drinking.

The Nation