Ghanaian Afro-pop singer and songwriter, Wiyaala has called on the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to provide clarity on its guidelines to ban alcohol advertisement by celebrities.
In an interview on The Afternoon Show on TV3, Wiyaala contended that the FDA’s guideline is a bit vague and Ghanaians are not satisfied with the explanation of the directive.
Wiyaala emphasized that the there is a clear distinction between promoting and influence which have created an ambiguity in the FDA’s directive.
She urged the Authority to rather set up rules and regulations rather than an outright ban as their directive stipulates.
“I personally don’t want to be a brand ambassador for alcohol because there’s a fine line between influence and promotion… influence is more of an action from my point and promoting is a more of a choice. FDA should really come out with rules and regulations instead of just banning. They should come up and just explain into details why,” she noted on Monday, June 24.
Background
The FDA in its guidelines for the Advertisement of Foods published on February 1, 2016 stipulates that “No well-known personality or professional shall be used in alcoholic beverage advertising.”
The authority explained that the guideline was necessary to prevent minors from being addicted to alcohol due to the influence of celebrities.
The FDA further noted that the ban was in adherence with a policy by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and also part of efforts to protect children and young ones from being lured into alcoholism.
However, a citizen Mark Darlington filed a suit against the FDA’s directive praying the Apex court to hold as unconstitutional the directive as it violated the right against discrimination as guaranteed by Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution.
But the Supreme court in a 5-2 majority decision on Wednesday, June 19 dismissed the case and upheld the FDA’s directive.
The court held that the directive by FDA was not unreasonable and excessive, adding that it didn’t contravene the provision of the constitution.
Source: 3news
