Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Apparently, scenes associated with smoking and drinking alcohol can disappear from Azerbaijani TV screens in the near future.

Although the issue has not yet been considered in the parliament, but some are concerned about propagandistic impact of such scenes.

Statistics shows that these methods of propaganda work quite effectively.

Therefore, it is necessary to enforce means widely used in world practice in this fighting. For instance, many countries ban the promotion of alcohol and smoking, while others introduce various kinds of restrictions on their demonstration in the movies and on TV or tightly regulate for certain age groups.

Advertising of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks TV series and films is unacceptable, believes MP Hadi Rajabli, Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy. “Unfortunately, we do not follow these rules,” he told local news portal azvision.az.

The MP proposed to ban advertising of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks in films.

“Several years ago the parliamentary committee prepared a draft law in this end. This bill is on the agenda. It can be discussed once. I am against cigarettes and alcohol. Media take big responsibility on this issue,” Rajabov said. “Age limit must be indicated while showing these films.”

Experts say that promotion of such scenes in the vast majority of cases is no coincidence. In many cases films empower alcoholic products with various mythical characteristics for instance the ability to reduce stress, or to heal, or to inspire, and so on, hereby creating the illusion that the alcohol can be something useful to a person.

Sometimes we see that the bottle with alcohol or package of cigarettes just appear in the frame. Often in these scenes one can see many familiar logos and brands. In business dictionary it's called “product placement”, an advertising technique used by companies to subtly promote their products through a non-traditional advertising technique, usually through appearances in film and television.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz