Bollywood stars told to stop appearing in surrogate ads

Three top Bollywood actors including Shah Rukh Khan must stop appearing in surrogate advertisements for a brand mostly associated with a banned betel nut product, India’s Maharashtra state has said as it intensifies a food safety drive.

The new food safety chief of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, has suspended the licences of well-known local restaurants as well as foreign outlets for poor hygiene, making him hugely popular on social media.

Last week, the state shut four Domino’s stores and 12 warehouses of big grocery giants.

In a warning to Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff, made public over the weekend, the state said the actors were promoting Vimal’s cardamoms but the brand is associated largely with a prohibited betel nut mix called pan masala that is sold in tiny 3.5-rupee (about 4 U.S. cents) packs and considered harmful, especially when mixed with tobacco.

Industry estimates show India’s pan masala market was worth an estimated $5 billion last year.

Health experts and doctors have said that it is a leading cause of oral fibrosis that often progresses to oral cancer.

Representatives of Khan, Devgn and Shroff did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did Vishnu & Company Trademarks, the company which owns the brand Vimal.

“Such use of the brand name and identity may have the effect of promoting, reinforcing or maintaining consumer recognition of the prohibited” product, the state Food and Drug Administration said in the notice, seeking an explanation from the actors within 15 days.

Surrogate advertising is a marketing method used to promote goods that may be prohibited.

Companies often use the same brand name, logo or style on a legal proxy product — such as club soda, or cardamom in this case — to keep the main brand visible to buyers.

“Upon examination … (it) appears that the advertisement promotes the VIMAL brand, which is mainly associated with pan masala,” the notice added.

The Maharashtra authorities asked the three actors to remove the advertisements from their social media accounts, not cooperate with any further broadcast and provide details of their endorsement agreements with the manufacturer.

Surrogate advertisements have concerned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government in the past, with the current regulatory regime often being disputed in courts.

The state in its notice to the actors said Indian law restricts advertisements that are misleading.