Rule limits pushes up advertising costs in HCM City

HCM City’s officials need to work out suitable measures to facilitate advertising activities in the city, concluded a meeting here on October 31. The city’s administration for advertising comes after urban development, Nguyen Quy Cap from the HCM City Advertising Association told the meeting, which was held to gather suggestions for the local government from advertising companies.
Cap said that while there were very good positions for outdoor advertising in the city, no permits were available for these spots.
The law does not allow advertisements to be displayed on the top of buildings and houses. Therefore, advertising banners are hung on walls, which is aesthetically unpleasing, according to Cap.
Another problem is that given the limited supply of advertising spots, they come at very high prices. This is a cause of harassment by state officials when companies ask for permission, Cap said.
Cap also advised the city against banning advertisements on buses and taxis because the concept has been proven effective in other countries.
He calculated that it would cost 10 million dong a year to put advertisements on a bus. With around 4,000 buses running in HCM City this year, allowing advertisements to appear on them would bring in an estimated 40 billion dong to the city government annually.
Furthermore, the law that limits companies’ advertising and marketing spending to 10% of their total revenue was declared unsuitable.
The meeting also suggested a change in the limitation of newspapers to having less than 10% of their paper being advertisements and radio and TV programmes running advertising less than 5% of broadcasting time.

 

Category: Legal