PARENTS AND FAMILY GROUPS BASH CONDOM ADS

In a two-pronged initiative to stop the proliferation of radio and television ads selling a “condom lifestyle”, parent and family groups from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao petitioned the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) and the Adversing Board to enforce the ethical norms embodied in the Radio and Television Codes and the Advertising Code, respectively, and ban condom ads from these channels of media. In a complaint filed with KBP on January 11, AIDS-FREE PHILIPPINES, INC., HUMAN LIFE INTERNATIONAL, and FAMILY MEDIA ADVOCACY FOUNDATION (FAMAF) reported that the frequent condoms ads on radio and television offend the community’s sense of propriety, decency, and morality by their intrusion into the privacy and personal space of spouses and married couples. They rued the use of young models on television, where the ads subtly purvey a lifestyle of illicit relations among the young. They cited the Television Code which says that premarital sex and extra-marital sex shall never be condoned or justified, and illicit sexual relations or any form of perversion shall never be presented as good, attractive.

According to the groups’ spokesperson, Atty. Jo Imbong, Executive Director of FAMAF, the condom ads appear even in programs for general audiences where children are part of the viewers and on cable television in shows patronized by the young. Citing the Code of Ethics in Advertising, Atty. Imbong said that advertising has a social, economic, and cultural responsibility to the community and the advertiser’s interest should take into account community interest. “Here”, she said, “the ads convey a vulgar message and mock the sensibilities of audiences.” “The Code also clearly states that profanity, obscenity and vulgarity, or presentations which are offensive to contemporary standards of decency or morals, shall not be allowed in advertising, even when understood only by a part of the audience,” she added.

The complaint before KBP alleged that certain television shows in a major network incorporate within their talk-show and interview formats subtle condom-lifestyle advertising and advocacy and blurs the distinction between advertising and news content, which is unethical programming prohibited and penalized in the Television Code. According to the complainants, the Advertising Code also commands that advertisements should always be readily perceptible as commercial announcements and should not create any misimpression that they are news or editorial items or public service announcements. Advertising, the complaint stressed, entails a responsibility not only to the members of the industry and the business sector but, at the same time, also to the community which is exposed to and is affected by advertisements, for which reason, advertising may not sell deviancy.

The complainants urged the public to file their protest against all condom ads in broadcast media by sending their complaints to FAMAF at lifewatch08@yahoo.com which will forward these to KBP and ADBOARD,.


Atty. Jo Imbong, lifewatch08@yahoo.com
Mobile No. 0917-851 7878

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