Ghanaian actor and media personality, George Quaye has reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) of celebrity ad on alcoholic beverages.
The Apex court in a majority decision of 5-2 dismissed the suit against the FDA’s directive to ban celebrities from advertising alcoholic beverages on June 19, 2024.
The ruling on the matter comes after the court had twice deferred its judgement on the case.
Meanwhile, George Quaye who was in court during the ruling is not enthused about the decision of the Supreme Court.
He emphasized that although the FDA is seeking to protect children through its directive, the Authority must consider a win-win situation for both sides.
According to him, this directive from the FDA will make it difficult for celebrities to feed, urging the FDA to find common grounds to resolve the matter.
“I keep asking myself, is it a war between the FDA and celebrities and the answer is a No…you need to find creative ways to rather use them and endear them towards your brand, you do not fight and push them away by-passing laws that will make it difficult for them to feed.
“This is not something that I think that FDA should be hard and fast about, I think what the FDA has to do is to find a middle ground to sit with these popular people and find the best way to ensure that we can all eat, inspire and ensure that alcoholic beverages are not destroying our children,” he stated.
The FDA in its guidelines for the Advertisement of Foods published on February 1, 2016 stipulates that “No well-known personality or professional shall be used in alcoholic beverage advertising.”
The authority explained that the guideline was necessary to prevent minors from being addicted to alcohol due to the influence of celebrities.
The FDA further noted that the ban was in adherence with a policy by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and also part of efforts to protect children and young ones from being lured into alcoholism.
Mark Darlington in his suit against the FDA directive was praying the Apex court to hold as unconstitutional the directive as it violated the right against discrimination as guaranteed by Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution.
