If there was any doubt that booze baron Vijay Mallya may have named the Bangalore IPL team “Royal Challengers” to promote a whisky brand owned by the UB group, it has been wiped out by the no-holds-barred branding within the M. Chinnaswamy stadium.
The “doctorate of philosophy in business administration from the University of South California” who bought the Bangalore franchise for Rs 446 crore will welcome spectators and television audiences to the Royal Challenge Pavilion, the Royal Challenge Terrace and the Royal Challenge North Terrace.
And, in case the blind are too blind to notice, to the Signature Executive, McDowell Best View, Bagpiper Standview, Antiquity Members’ Stand as well. For the record, the Supreme Court of India, in its infinite wisdom, has declined to intervene. And for the record, surrogate advertising is banned in India.
Clearly, Mallya, an honourable member of the Rajya Sabha—in other words, an “Elder”—does not believe he could be sending the wrong signal to young, impressionable minds?
Photograph: Mallya meets the umpires for tomorrow’s IPL opening match between the Royal Challengers and the Calcutta Knight Riders in Bangalore on Thursday (Karnataka Photo News)
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churumuri 
The Supreme Court did not decline to intervene, it only said that there was no reason why this matter should be given importance over the hundreds of petitions being filed with it everyday.
And no. Mallya has no problems about sending any signals as long as they result in more people drinking his brews.
Cheers.
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i wonder if you will ever get water in the stadium…why not rename it into Kingfisher Stadium
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If Shah Rukh Khan could weasel out of the charge of smoking in public by claiming he was in a private club, surely Vijay Mallya can claim that the KSCA, which is a conglomeration of private clubs, is a private area and he can damn well do as he pleases?
That said, this battle against surrogate advertising is a futile exercise. If Kingfisher can fly merrily in the skies, cocking a snook at the purists, serious drinkers are only going to laugh at attempts to stymie a Royal Challengers team or a Signature stand.
It was clear as pikewater why Mallya was getting into the IPL. Why are we acting as if we wanted him to use it to sell the ‘panchanga’ or something? I only hope that the batsmen in his team do not take the “do not drink and drive” slogans too seriously. It could blow their chances bigtime.
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A Pink Tie!?!
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We all know as to how the careers of our Viswanth the Batsman and Viswanath the Wicket Keeper came to an end during their prime. Who would be the next leading youngster to get into this?!
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Cheers to the ‘Tun’ty ‘Tun’ty.
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The rich and mighty will have their way. All this rules are only for the ignorant and poor.Surrogate advertising should be allowed. Infact open drinking advt should be allowed
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Vibudhs!
It’s not pink- its Fuschia- and it might have gone with a grey suit but not black… All that money and a court jester as the end result…
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