2013 is promising to become a year of guessing. The new game is intended for all the alcohol market players – for foreign and domestic wine producers, for importers and distributors, for the related media and magazines. Guessing is what we do about our laws and telling us how to understand these laws is the super-mission of the judges. The sad fact is that you never know how to obey the law because you never understand what it really says. New advertising ban that came into full force on January the 1st 2013 is already brining headache to everyone concerned.
Wine and alcohol exhibitions are among the first potential victims of imperfect raw legislation on advertising. The letter forwarded by the Federal Antimonopoly Service to one of the major wine and food exhibitions ProdExpo shows all the little nuances and vulnerabilities of those who is planning to take part this year. There’s a lot of text in this letter that you wouldn’t want to read through – it’s hard even for a native speaker, trust me. The letter gives explanation on how FAS will interpret the new legislation and the advertising ban in respect of the exhibitors, their products and information present at the exhibition stand.
The most striking thing about this letter is that it answers no questions. If you’re thinking to take part in a Russian exhibition – think twice from now on. Today the advertising of alcohol products of which wine is of course a part of is only possible in the places where the products are sold (meaning the place has the official retail license to sell alcohol). In all other places the advertising is currently prohibited as well as the tasting sessions. Keeping it short they are telling us that we cannot advertise on the exhibition space – these spaces do not hold alcohol sales licenses. In the same very letter they say that the law doesn’t affect the information that presents on the exhibition stand if this information is meant to let exhibition visitors know about the assortment of the products and go in line with the exhibition goals.
So here we are coming to the major point here – what is the goal of the wine / food exhibition? The answer is that its goal is to make the exhibitors facilitate their businesses – bring contacts, attract new potential partners and – consumers! How do one attract new consumers? By means of being different and attractive. How are you being attractive and different? You advertise!
This weird logic is behind the new legislation. And now dodge this: quoting the letter “Still, in case the decoration of the exhibition stand brings attention to a specific good and this specific good is outlined in a raw of other similar goods this information can be regarded as advertising”. Now, the question: how will you build an exhibition stand that doesn’t attract attention of the public? And why on Earth should anyone want to do that?
To be continued.