Thursday, February 15, 2007

Racial Neo Sports ad's taken to task and faces probable ban

Neo Sports the latest Indian sports channel which is operated by Nimbus Communications which has the broadcast rights for the West Indies tour of India and the Sri Lanka tour of India has been taken to task by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) of India.

They have been accused of broadcasting racial advertisements for promoting the West Indies and Sri Lanka tour matches.

Ad N0. 1 - A West Indian visitor is at an Indian outdoor dhaba. He takes a mouthful of the curry and his mouth is on fire. As he runs around for water, the waiter walks away, the other guests put their hands in the glasses, drop their dentures in their glasses of water and other things that prevent him from drinking water. Finally, in desperation, he turns to a tap and even that has no water. Tag line - “It is tough to be a West Indian in India “. And then there are images of the West Indian and Indian teams playing cricket.

Ad No. 2 - A West Indian couple are snuggling on a boat in the middle of a large and serene lake. The boatman looks at them and then he stands. He throws the oar away and then starts disrobing. The couple look at each other, frightened. Then, when he’s down to his boxers, he jumps off the boat, leaving the poor couple in the middle of the lake with no oar and the West Indian guy calling out “Hello? Hello maan??”. Tag line - “It is tough to be a West Indian in India”. And then there are images of the West Indian and Indian teams playing cricket.

Ad N0. 3: They have a Sri Lankan man being served food at the dhaba (the same hot curry) and the waiters gleefully waiting for him to start eating. He is running around looking for water which is not there but they’ve established what’s about to happen to him. Tag line ‘Now, even Sri Lankans will have a tough time in India”

Ad No. 4: A Sri Lankan couple in the boat. Shots of the boatman grinning expectantly at what’s about to happen to them. Shorter ad than the WI one. Same tag line as above.

The advertisement that the I&B has the most questions about is Ad No. 2 and Neo have been submitted a show cause notice for violating advertising code. But the other ads may be taken to task soon.

Already Neo is at logger heads with the Indian government for not sharing the live match feed with DD Sports and if they are found guilty of violating the advertising code with Ad No. 2 then they could face a ban of up to 30 days and if the other ads are also scrutinized and found to be violating the advertising code then the ban could be longer. They could even face a cancellation of their broadcasting license.

Nimbus runs two sports channels at the moment being Neo Sports, Neo Sports Plus and the third sports channel will be launched soon.

Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus is available in Sri Lanka on pay television operator LBN.

5 comments:

Sanjeev Thurusinghe said...

If it’s the case according to admin, it will get banned. Because lbn have Carrie the channel. What will happen tomorrow dialog also gets the right…….any way before that lots of seargen nallathamby characters to be band first that’s clearly insult some community in our own country.

ARE YOU ALL FUNDED BY DIALOG

Anonymous said...

Actually the ads are quite funny. It's a pity people are offended..

Just Mal said...

its funniness is not in dispute. but it's us that they are poking fun at. the bastards!

we had a similar issue here in aus when visiting english players were made fun of as whinging poms.

i wonder how the sri lankan ad went. can someone upload it to youtube or something. we can eat hotter curry than they do anyway.

Sanjeev Thurusinghe said...

Most of the viewers get the opportunity to see the action only. But during the post match session they telecast a live chat show with Arjuna, Srinath & Dean Jones. From the word goes our Srilankan Friend startcretizies the entire SL cricket & the players he does not like. He talks absolute nonsense. It’s a real shame for the country.

In srilanka recently Media ministry have banned the television commercial with Lion concept. The client was Laug gas.

Anonymous said...

How does anyone get in touch with LBN?