I lost huge sums of money from Joy Dadi deal due to FDA Alcohol ad ban – Mzbel
Ghanaian Hiplife musician and entrepreneur, Mzbel has criticised the Food and Drugs Authority’s directive to ban alcohol advertisement by celebrities.
Mzbel in an interview on Onua FM on July 1, disclosed that she lost huge sums of money from her deal with Joy Dadi some eight years ago when she was about to advertise for the alcoholic brand.
Mzbel narrated that although she received a part payment of Gh₵25,000, the deal was cancelled at the last moment after the company got to know of the ban by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
The entreprenuer recalled that photoshoots and other processes had already begun and plans were underway for a billboard until the cancellation of the deal.
She said the balance left to be paid was a lot, an amount she could establish a business with.
“They gave me Gh₵25,000 that was a long time. About seven to eight years ago. It was part payment; they had paid for my photoshoots and every other expense and we were preparing for a billboard before they realized about the FDA ban so we could not do the billboard.
“The pictures that we took and every other thing we did went to waste. They could bot take back the money because they had already paid me,” she noted.
Mzbel said she was disturbed by how things turned up because the balance left to be given to her was a lot.
“It worried me. I was pained by everything because the balance left was huge sum of money which I could have used to start a project and even donated to some people but I lost everything,” she added.
Background
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.
However, a citizen Mark Darlington filed a suit against the FDA’s directive 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.
But the Supreme court in a 5-2 majority decision on Wednesday, June 19 dismissed the case and upheld the FDA’s directive.
The court held that the directive by FDA was not unreasonable and excessive, adding that it didn’t contravene the provision of the constitution.
