It is not legal to advertise alcohol in India. And drinking is not as public a phenomenon as it is elsewhere. There are also differences on men and women and how they are supposed to act, respectively, in a drinking situation.
The first point is a pretty interesting one. Truly, you cannot advertise alcohol in India, but that doesn't mean it does not happen.
Initially, when you get here you see many advertisements that have the appearance of being an alcohol advertisement. Upon closer examination, you see they are advertising music. Or cassettes and CDs. Or golf accessories. And you naively are amazed that Seagrams has a line of golf accessories. Or that a well-known whisky company sells compact disks.
But upon asking more questions, you find out that anyone wanting to sell alcohol in India must also have a shell company that sells some other product. Then it all falls into place. The alcohol companies have to embed their true product in a product that generally fills the role of "male accessories". Golf accessories, electric guitars, blank music CDs, etc.
Kind of ridiculous. Kind of interesting.
Just another quirky thing here......
