Famed teleseries actor, Mikki Osei Berko, popularly known as Dada Boat or Master Richard, has termed the Food and Drug Authority’s (FDA) ban on celebrity alcohol advertisements as “lazy work” to cover up their failed educational campaign on the dangers alcohol imposes on youth.
According to him, the FDA approves alcoholic beverages, so he does not see the need for it to ban some particular people from advertising what the authority itself has approved for consumption.
Speaking in an interview with Max Morning Agenda on Friday, June 21. 2024, via Zoom, the renowned actor explained that the word celebrity was overemphasized by the FDA.
“If I watch an advertisement for two weeks, the person who appears in it becomes a hero, so I don’t know what the FDA is saying concerning celebrities. Companies could bring a person who is not famous to advertise; for two weeks of seeing such a person, the person automatically becomes a celebrity,” he said.
Dada Boat noted that parents rather had an impact on children; therefore, the FDA should have channeled their resources and focused on educating the youth not to drink when they were under 18 years old.
“If we are going to depend solely on celebrities to raise people who are morally upright, then I think that is too little to do because the first person who impacts the children could be the parents. What would the FDA do to parents who drink in front of their children or send them to buy alcohol?” he queried.
Dada Boat further expressed worry about how the authorities made that decision without engaging stakeholders to reach a consensus.
He noted that he had lost streams of revenue since he was banned from advertising alcoholic drinks, adding that “celebrities could still be used to advertise and to also educate the youth about the risk involved in drinking in the same advertisement.”
Dada Boat’s comments followed the current court’s decision to uphold the FDA’s ban on celebrities advertising alcoholic drinks.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
