The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has banned the transmission and retransmission of the advertisements of Lux Cozy Underwear and Amul Macho Underwear because they are "indecent, vulgar and suggestive." It is a different thing altogether that the two ads had been cleared by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory body of the advertising industry.
The venerable I&B ministry has directed all television channels to be more "careful" in future in selection of ad content, and to strictly adhere to the advertisement code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Rules framed thereunder. The two ads were seen to be violative of Rule 7(8) of the Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable Television Act.
The commercial for Amul Macho Underwear showed a young housewife suggestively washing her husband's underwear on a riverbank as other women eye her curiously. The Lux Cozy Underwear ad showed a man with only a towel wrapped around him answering the door where he is met by a young woman. The towel slips and the woman's eyes gaze downwards.
That's bad. Real bad. So the I&B ministry decreed. And off have the ads gone.
