Children from anti-alcohol networks gather at the Public Health Ministry yesterday to give moral support to Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, who has pushed forward the alcohol-advertising ban that will be announced today.

FDA acting secretary general Manit Arunakul will sign the orders today, after which they will be forwarded for declaration in the Royal Gazette. They will take effect within 45 days of being published.

However, the ban will not be applied to printed matter that is published overseas or live-TV programmes being broadcast from overseas, for which Thailand is not the main target audience.

"But only real-time broadcasts will be allowed to display alcoholic-beverage brands. Any replay of it - even during half-time breaks must not show the brand logos," the Public Health Ministry's deputy permanent secretary Dr Rewat Wisarutvej said yesterday.

The move will require alcohol producers to list ingredients on labels for any liquid with more than five milligrams of ethanol per litre.

Witawat Jayapani, president of the Advertising Association of Thailand, said manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic drinks spent about Bt2 billion a year on advertising.

"About 30 per cent of their marketing budget is spent above the line or on media ads," he said. If the ban is enforced, he believed the promotional budget was likely to be diverted to other marketing activities, such as price-cutting. 

Witawat also pointed out that the government would still fail to control ads for alcohol drinks on live broadcasts, foreign movies and the Internet.

"This means foreign brands will have an advantage over local brands," he said.

Paramet Ratchaiyaboon, the chairman of the Advertising Association of Thailand, believed the ad ban might not be the most effective solution for the problem. Alcohol ads had been strictly controlled for about 10 years but sales and the number of road accidents had failed to drop.

On the contrary, the sale of lao khao was increasing without ads. It held 68 per cent of the "whisky" market and 33 per cent of total sales of alcohol.

Chaowarong Limpatamapani, secretary-general of the National Press Council of Thailand, said most papers supported the ban on ads for alcoholic drinks even though their income would be cut when companies were forced to withdraw advertisements, he said.

Public Health Minister Mong-kol na Songkhla yesterday said research showed the ban on ads for alcoholic drinks should reduce youth consumption of alcohol by about 24 per cent a month.

Currently, ads for alcoholic drinks are banned on TV between 5am and 10pm. However, monitoring showed ads - direct or indirect - were still seen on air up to 237 times in April. "It comes in the form of a logo in the graphics or backdrops," Mongkol explained.

Last year, sales of liquor and beer around the country stood at 2,446 million litres - up from 2,307 million litres in 2003.

The amount of people with cirrhosis of the liver or classed as alcoholics also jumped from 3.2 per one million litres of liquor/beer sales to nearly 4 patients last year.

Disease Control Department director general Dr Thawat Suntrajarn said alcoholic drinks caused more than 60 diseases, and a huge number of casualties.

In a bid to reduce Thais' consumption, the Public Health Ministry will also put the Alcoholic Beverage Control Bill before the Cabinet today.

If the bill passes into legislation, the minimum age for people able to purchase alcoholic drinks will rise from 18 to 25 years.

Mongkol yesterday said ads for other products sharing the same trademark as alcoholic drinks would also be banned.

"As part of the bill, vending machines, hawking, discounts and promotional gimmicks cannot be used for the sale of alcoholic beverages while it will also be illegal to serve alcoholic drinks to people who are excessively drunk," Mongkol said.

He said the bill was approved at seven public hearings between June 8 and June 27.

A network of 84 organisations that call for people to abstain from alcohol threw their support behind the Public Health Ministry's move. Nearly 100 people from these groups brought flowers to the ministry to offer moral support. "The advertisements attract new drinkers," network representative Thira Watcharapranee said.

Boonrawd Trading marketing manager Chatchai Wiratyosin said the group had no argument with the advertising ban but just hoped that it would be enforced impartially on all alcoholic products with no exceptions.

"Advertising in live TV sports shows from foreign countries should be also forbidden, otherwise international alcohol brands will have an advantage over local brands," he said.

Chatchai said the state should increase the tax on white liquor, known as "lao khao" because its cheap price meant it was a huge seller - and also the main kind of alcohol consumed by drivers who have road accidents.

"Lao khao contains a high percentage of alcohol, but is charged with the lowest tax. And if the tax on it isn't raised, other existing alcohol producers will be forced to fight it with heavy price-cutting campaigns, which would stimulate greater consumption," he said.

Thai Beverage senior deputy managing director Somchai Suthikulpanit said he wanted the order to be announced clearly - so people know what is allowed and what is not allowed, so the company could react accordingly.

Chatrarat Kaewmorakot

The Nation