Cricket Australia, the country’s governing body for the sport, ordered the removal of a boundary-rope advertisement for an Indian mouthwash in Hindi because of its similarity with a chewing tobacco product marketed in India.
The federal health department reportedly launched the investigation into the advertisement, displayed throughout the India-Australia cricket series.
Tobacco advertising is banned in Australia under the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act of 1992 and violations are punishable with heavy penalties. An Australian cricket spokesman blamed the Indian High Commission in Australia, for the snafu: “We asked (the Indian government’s) advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language…. They came back and said it’s an Indian mouthwash — or at least they said it’s not a tobacco product.”