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BANGKOK: -- The Public Health Ministry is considering action against alcohol beverage firms that distribute calendars clearly showing their brand names or logos - but with no constructive or educational information of value to society.
Dr Saman Futrakul, director of the Office of the Alcohol Beverage and Tobacco Consumption Control Committee, yesterday commented on news that a major alcohol beverage firm would distribute a sexy edition calendar to buyers during the New Year festival.
He said distributing a calendar with a brand name or logo but no worthy information contravened the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act on product ads. It could mean a one-year jail term and/or a Bt50,000 fine, as well as a daily fine of Bt50,000 until a correction was made.
Retailers displaying such calendars also violated the Act's article 30 (5) on promotions that encourage people to buy alcoholic drinks, punishable by a six-month jail term and/or Bt10,000 fine, he said.
Saman said he hoped four important laws - to be proposed for the National Committee on Alcohol Policy's approval on December 23 - would get a nod to prevent alcohol access among youth, especially a ban on alcohol sales within 500-metres of a school, and banning of the alcoholic smoothie drink.
The Ministry would propose for committee approval nine warning images to cover at least 50 per cent of the alcoholic drink labels. The ministry would host a contest so people could participate in designing the warning images, he said.
Phranakhon Rajabhat University's Mass Communications lecturer Nitta Roonkasem commented on Singha Corp.'s plan to launch, despite a risk of law violation, a calendar featuring models with body paint.
The firm expected criticism, but knew the Leo Brand label would become a talking point, she said, as people saw it on websites and the Internet.
Using women's sex appeal to sell alcohol drinks was an irresponsible marketing approach as it stimulated consumption among people of all ages, especially youths. The lecturer cited a study on students' attitudes towards drinking at Prince of Songkhla University that found half the respondents claimed drinking increased a chance to have sex and many believed advertising images that said it boosted sexieness .
Jaded Chouwilai, manager of the Friends of Women Foundation, said he didn't consider a calendar with nud_e women boosting beer sales as an art, but a sexual stimulation that could lead to violence.
He urged authorities to take up the issue seriously with major investors and the public in condemning the firm's move, saying it had tried to launch a sexy calendar last year despite the new law. The attempt this year was then a second-time offence.
A source reported that on the December 14 launch of this sexy calendar, and while state and public organisations were voicing their opposition to it, Thai cyber surfers were seeking it out. The Google search engine showed the company's calendar name was hit 402,000 times on the morning of December 14, while the pictures of models with body paint were forwarded widely via e-mails.
-- The Nation 2009-12-16
And it was absolutely impossible to just write "in her car's trunk"? Someone would rather investigate journalistic corruption through product placement than what they're doing now.
