Strong drinks advertising to be banned - Vasile Ursu

The advertising of strong alcoholic beverages will be entirely excluded from the billboards in Chisinau municipality, and not the ones that promote Moldovan wines and beer, interim mayor told Info-Prim Neo on Monday December 25. Ursu mentioned that the advertising of Moldovan wines will be accepted because they need to be promoted, while the “other publicities that lead to debauchery” will be rejected. Asked if the interdiction of the strong drinks advertising is backed by a decision of the municipal Council, Vasile Ursu said that he does not need the municipal councillors’ approval to impose a ban on this type of ad. This was the interim mayor’s comment on the statements made by the Advertising Agency McCann-Erickson Moldova, according to which the City Hall banned from putting up an advertising of vodka “Russkii Razmer”, shortly after the model of this advertising product was approved by the specialized services of the City Hall. The Agency’s director Natalia Puhleacova stated the last weekend that she will sue the City Hall in case the local authorities do not want to reach an amiable agreement with the Agency, which spent about EUR 1.8 thousand to prepare advertising images and concluded contracts worth USD 9,000 with six operators of the external advertising network. The Agency requests the Chisinau City Hall to work out and approve in due time a document that would set concrete rules for advertising images in the municipality, so as not to admit similar shortcomings further.