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Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration issued show-cause notices on 11 August 2026 to actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff over an advertisement for Vimal Elaichi.
The regulator alleges the advertisement amounts to surrogate promotion of Vimal Pan Masala, a product prohibited in Maharashtra, and says this is the first time it has examined surrogate advertising.
The notices invoke Sections 24 and 53 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the FSS (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018, and give the endorsers 15 days to reply.
Maharashtra has banned gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine since 2012 under Section 30(2)(a) of the FSS Act, a prohibition renewed every year.
Separately, the Central Consumer Protection Authority's 2022 guidelines allow penalties of up to Rs 10 lakh, rising to Rs 50 lakh for repeat violations, and can bar an endorser for up to three years.
Surrogate advertising promotes a restricted or banned product indirectly, by advertising a different and legally permitted product that carries the same brand name, logo, colour scheme, packaging style or visual signature. The permitted item - elaichi, soda, music CDs, bottled water - is the surrogate; the advertisement's real work is to keep the prohibited brand alive in the consumer's memory. It is the standard workaround wherever direct advertising of alcohol, tobacco or pan masala is prohibited. The regulatory test is therefore not what the advertisement claims to be selling, but whether the surrogate product genuinely exists and is independently sold in the market, or whether it is a brand-extension device.
Simple Analogy: A shop barred from displaying a banned product puts up a signboard for a permitted item in exactly the same colours, typeface and jingle. Nothing illegal is on the shelf, but everyone walking past reads the old name.
Restricts misleading and deceptive advertisements relating to food products; the basis of the FDA's objection to the advertisement's framing.
Provides a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh for anyone who is a 'party to the publication' of a misleading advertisement, which is how celebrity endorsers are brought within its reach.
The power used by Maharashtra to prohibit gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine since 2012; the ban is renewed annually.
The subordinate rules governing food advertising claims, invoked alongside the parent Act.
Establishes the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), the national regulator for misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices.
Defines a 'misleading advertisement' to include one that falsely describes a product, gives a false guarantee, implies an unfair trade practice, or conceals material information.
Allows penalties up to Rs 10 lakh for a first violation and up to Rs 50 lakh for subsequent ones, and empowers the CCPA to bar an endorser for up to one year, or up to three years on repetition.
Define surrogate advertisement, and require endorsers to conduct due diligence and disclose any material connection with the advertiser.
The tobacco-specific law under which the DGHS had issued show-cause notices in 2018 to the brand's promoter, Vishnu Pouch Packaging Pvt Ltd, alleging indirect tobacco advertising.
Tobacco-control litigation in India has repeatedly been argued through the right to life and health, which is why advertising restrictions have survived free-speech challenges under Article 19(1)(a) as reasonable restrictions.
The FSSAI ecosystem regulates the product as food, while the CCPA regulates the advertisement as a consumer-protection matter; a single campaign can attract both, plus COTPA if tobacco advertising is alleged.
The Advertising Standards Council of India is a voluntary industry body whose codes have no statutory force - a standard prelims distinction from the CCPA, which is a statutory authority with penal powers.
GS Paper II > Statutory and Regulatory Bodies; Government Policies and Interventions; GS Paper IV > Ethics of advertising and endorsement
General Awareness > Acts, Regulatory Bodies and Current Affairs
General Awareness > Consumer Protection and Regulatory Framework
An advertisement that circumvents a legal prohibition by advertising a permitted product in order to promote a prohibited one indirectly, typically through a shared brand name, logo or visual style.
The regulator established under Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 to act against misleading advertisements, unfair trade practices and violations of consumer rights.
The phrase in Section 53 of the FSS Act, 2006 that extends liability for a misleading food advertisement beyond the manufacturer to those involved in publishing it, including endorsers.
Any financial or other relationship between an endorser and an advertiser that could affect the endorsement's credibility, and which the CCPA Guidelines, 2022 require to be disclosed.