Surrogate Advertising is advertising of illegal banned products like Alcohol and Cigarettes.Surrogate Advertising was first started in Britain, where housewives started protesting against the liquor companies and forced them to promote fruit juice and soda under the same brand name.
In simple Word, companies who are banned from promoting the product through any media can promote the product through Surrogate Advertising. For Example: Men will be Men ad of Imperial Blue.
Though the advertisement of alcohol is banned in India, Imperial Blue is promoting its product through surrogate marketing.Please find below all Imperial Blue ads collection.
Another good example of surrogate marketing is Wills. ITC Limited had disconnected the brand name Wills from its cigarette division to its lifestyle division. Today, it is promoting its well know brand ‘Wills’ through its apparel store Wills lifestyle.
Will LifeStyle by ITC Limited
ITC Limited is no more producing Cigarette under the brand name ‘Wills’.So that, they can easily promote the brand name ‘Wills’ with out facing charges of surrogate advertising.
Below are some good example of Surrogate advertising
Besides Alcohol and Cigarette, Surrogate Advertising is also used in Pharmaceuticals industry. In many countries, pharmaceuticals companies are not allowed to advertise directly.