Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

A March 18 Verkhovna Rada bill restricts public tobacco and alcohol advertisements in Ukraine. The bill, subject to presidential approval, will outlaw billboard advertisements like these as of Jan. 1, 2009. KP Media, photo by Pavlo Terekhov In an attempt to curb widespread alcohol and cigarette use, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a law significantly restricting the advertising of such products.

of such products, including a ban on outdoor billboards.

The bill was passed at the March 18 session, with 425 of 448 registered parliamentarians voting for it and now awaits President Viktor Yushchenko’s signature. The ban goes into effecton Jan. 1, 2009.

“Today we took the first step to improve our morals, and our television networks and advertisers became cleaner,” said Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, a deputy from the pro-presidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc.

The law threatens to slash nearly 13 percent from Ukraine’s outdoor billboard advertising market, with the total market worth an estimated $200 million, said Artem Bidenko, chair of the Ukrainian Outdoor Advertisement Association Council.

Alcohol and tobacco television sponsorship and advertising will also be substantially restricted starting next year.

Further restrictions, including prohibiting advertising on the first and last pages of printed publications (except for specialized magazines) and public transport, will come into force in 2010.

The transition period envisaged in the bill provides companies with enough time to correct their marketing policies, experts said.

“It will not be difficult for the market to adjust to these changes,” Bidenko said. “Large companies have been constantly reducing quotas for outdoor billboard advertising, as we recommended,” he explained.

Vitaliy Fedchuk, an executive at British American Tobacco Ukraine (BAT), said his company was ready for the ban of outdoor cigarettes advertising, as similar restrictions exist in many countries.

BAT adheres to the “international standards of tobacco products marketing,” which prohibits advertising that targets youth, he added.

“We are glad legislators listened to the voice of business and managed to phase in the restrictions over time,” said Tagir Imangulov, a spokesperson for Nemiroff, Ukraine’s largest alcohol exporter.

Yet experts note big alcohol and tobacco companies will not reduce their advertising budgets, but rather shift to other forms, including HoReCa, or hotel, restaurant and cafe advertising.

“Alcohol and cigarette ads will move to the Internet, indoor advertising and professional magazines,” Bidenko said. “Companies will spend most of their budgets on indirect communication, like activity in bars, proposing their fashion lines and so on.”

As leading companies restructure their marketing campaigns, smaller producers will face more difficulties adjusting, experts said.

Although the bill is supposed to temper alcohol and cigarette consumption, experts and alcohol producers doubt it will have the desired effect.

“It will not bring real results,” Bidenko said. “The results of sociological polls from Norway and Japan, where similar restrictions were introduced, prove this.”

In Poland, with practically no alcohol advertising options left, Nemiroff managed to increase its sales volume by two­and­a­half times in 2007, Imangulov noted.

“The state does not take care of citizens’ health,” Bidenko said. “What the deputies did is just a dog and pony show.”