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Painting advertisements on suburban trains may have been a brilliant marketing gimmick, but Western Railway (WR) might find itself caught on the wrong foot by painting beer advertisements on one of its trains.
A suburban local has now been painted a shade of yellow with posters of former Indian cricket star Vinod Kambli informing you that London Pilsner beer is available for just Rs 16 to the pint.
Both Central and Western Railway earn more than rupees three crore from advertisements on trains, at roughly Rs 20 lakh per train. According to the regulations, advertisements of liquor and cigarettes are prohibited on trains and railways stations.
Earlier, a host of liquor companies had bought over rows of neon signs at Churchgate Station, advertising their other products like apple juice and aqua soda. They have now been removed though WR says it was because the term of contract ended.
Even Dadar station earlier had hoardings of cigarette manufacturer Godfrey Philips Four Square brand, which was vandalised by anti-tobacco activists from the Crusade Against Tobacco last year.
Both city railway units have now realised that liquor companies are using other products to indirectly advertise their main product and conform to the law at the same time.
There are still locals running on the two lines that carry advertisements of Bagpiper without any reference to liquor, though a slogan that hints at the market position of the liquor company suggests otherwise.
It is probably because the law does not check whether these companies which claim to make aqua soda or apple juice actually do so or not. We allow it as long as it is not an ad for liquor or cigarettes. Though I can comment on this only after I see what they have painted on the train, a senior WR officer said.
Western Railway alone earns close to Rs two crore from the 11 trains that it has painted with advertisements for its total fleet of 74 trains.
Meanwhile, new trains that will be introduced in the city over the next couple of years, under the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporations initiative, will not sport any advertisements. This, railway officials say, will end the debate on what advertisements to put on trains.
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