Uzbeks Announce Cut-Rate Ads for Charities

Charities, non-government groups and social service agencies in Uzbekistan say a new law obliging advertising agencies to carry low-cost “social” adverts will be honoured mainly in the breach.



Some local charities are keen to take advantage of the innovative scheme, designed to help them get their message out on a low budget. But there are fears that in an environment where public campaigning is unusual and social problems are not widely debated, law will remain a dead letter.



Amended legislation came into effect on January 11 obliging private ad agencies to carry a certain proportion of low-cost public information and advertising for deserving causes.



The “social advertisements” category includes healthcare alerts, posters encouraging people to look after the environment, warnings against breaking the law, and information on public safety.



Commercial and other non-state firms are now required to post such adverts at rates that will be established by special bylaws.



The new law does not apply to companies, institutions and media funded by government, which already have to set five per cent of their advertising aside for public information or social causes free of charge.



The authorities say the law is overdue because agencies working in fields such as HIV/AIDS prevention, homelessness, drug addition and care for the elderly have repeatedly complained that they are unable to get their message over to the public.



They say appeals and advertisements featuring their work rarely appear either in the media or on posters in public places.



When it comes to television, caring organisations have until now paid the same high commercial advertising rates as everyone else.



The Tashkent coordinator of an international project on HIV/AIDS said it had suffered from this lack of public exposure.



“There was only one TV advertisement on this issue on Uzbek television on December 1,” he said, referring to World AIDS Day. “And that advertisement was very expensive.”



A representative of an NGO in the eastern city of Andijan recalled placing an ad in a newspaper to alert prospective migrant workers to a telephone hotline offering advice on how to avoid exploitation and human trafficking. "Although this was a social advertisement, it was printed at the usual commercial rate," he said.



A member of another non-government group Istikbolli Avlod also complained about the high cost of advertising, saying, "A small social ad in a newspaper cost us 77 US dollars, which was expensive."



Aybek Iskhakov, head of Uzbekistan’s national association of disabled people, made a similar point. His organisation is keen to publicise information about centres for disabled people but cannot afford to advertise at the market rate.



“We are in dire need of free social advertising and we are placing our hopes in the new legislation,” he said.



A 30-second video advertisement on television in Uzbekistan currently costs between 100 and 500 dollars, while the price range in national newspapers is about 20 per cent less.



Such prices are often beyond the means of many organisations working on social problems. Whether state-funded or not, they operate on small budgets.



While most of these groups welcome the new legislation, many doubt it will make much difference in the immediate future.



One observer in the Khorezm region of north-west Uzbekistan said the parliamentary move was “doomed to failure” because media would remain deeply resistant to publicising even the existence of social problems.



He recalled a recent case in which the United Nations Development Programme distributed a shipment of disposable syringes and condoms free of charge in Khorezm. The material was intended for anonymous distribution among drug addicts and prostitutes.



“However, the editor of the local regional newspaper refused to advertise it,” said the observer. “He said the syringes would be more useful for people with tuberculosis and children.”



A shopkeeper said he was outraged at the idea of his premises being used to alert people to the existence of drug addiction, alcoholism, homelessness and abandoned children.



“I would not agree to that, whatever the money,” he said. “I don’t want trouble in my business.”



A civil society activist in Bukhara said the Uzbek media did not understand what a social advertisement is, or why it would be valuable.



“They don’t think they have a social role in the development of society; they just want a profit,” he added.



Yevgenia Lapteva, of the Kyrgyzstan-based regional network Age Net – Central Asia without Borders, fears that private advertising agencies will be reluctant to carry socially-oriented adverts.



There is also a danger that free or low-cost advertising could be exploited as a covert way of promoting personal interests, for example by politicians.



But Lapteva is not against the idea behind the Uzbek initiative. On the contrary, she hopes that more social advertisements on public transport, in the streets and in the media will help introduce a culture of philanthropy that is not yet well-developed in Central Asia.