A screengrab from the advertisement.
ISLAMABAD: Following scores of complaints against a TV advertisement on contraceptives, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Tuesday ordered all TV channels to immediately stop its broadcast.
In a letter written to the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), Pemra pointed out that the advertisement was generally “perceived as indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard to our socio-cultural and religious values.”
"Airing of such immoral advertisement on Pakistani channels and that too in Ramazan warrants serious action," Pemra spokesperson Fakharuddin Mughal said.
Pemra argued that regardless of public complaints, the content of the advertisement contravenes not just the Pemra Act 2007 but also the constitution of the country.
As a result of this order, the PBA has directed its member TV channels against airing the advertisement.
Josh condoms are marketed in Pakistan by DKT International, a US-based non-profit organisation that works to promote family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in the developing world.
The 50-second advertisement stars model and actress Mathira as a newlywed bride who makes a neighbouring couple jealous by pampering her husband who uses Josh condoms.
Mathira, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said it is a normal advertisement and had nothing immoral or vulgar.
She added that she is being told that the advertisement will be back on air in a few days.
COMMENTS (110)
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Its not about the message its about how u convey the message. The message was right but the way it was shown in that ad was objectionable. I have been seeing saathi sabz sitara and touch ad since childhood that too in PTV. But this ad was way too cheap.
All the people who feel disgusted at PEMRA banning the 'Josh condom' ad, I recommend that all of you should, as a mode of civilized protest, start using the 'Josh condoms' and fight the ever-growing population crises in Pakistan. Lets see whether you succeed or not.
Perhaps framing contraceptive ads in the context of protecting yourself from STDs will meet more approval? I don't think the ad even mentions STDs.
@Mj: dude, this is not the first condom ad in Pakistan. remember how in this one T20 world cup, Touch condoms ad would air, for full 2 minutes, the whole song? all you people acting like this is such a travesty need to calm down a notch. this ad is plain stupid. and neither is one ad going to control the population crisis we are having. and we still have other contraceptive ads.
Am I only one worried about this growing trend of liberal fascism? I dont think there is anything faker than a liberal Pakistani.
Anyway, the ad is vulgar and indecent. Condoms have been selling in Pakistan for a long time now. It's just the advertisement thats a bit disturbing.
Liberals need an excuse to lash out against Pakistan on every occasion. Thank God, they are the minority and their opinions really dont affect the public actions at large.
What a joke; they allow all kinds of Indian shows and movies but they ban an Indian ad? They should just ban Indian media completely because of cultural senstitivities. I am all for contraception but can't Pakistani media take care of its own needs?
Seriously? That is stupid!
On the lighter and more rational side, we should actually have more contraceptive ads to spread awareness about breeding like rats in a country already under immense pressure of population runoff growth.
To consider our nation similar to western nations would be mistaken because our ideology emphasizes to promote a society cleansed from nudity and shamelessness which is essence of our faith.
The advert in question misses the basic purpose of condoms .. the message was different, n vulgar.
I have not seen such a ridiculous ad before. You do not need a 50 second ad for condom.
@gul: Agreed. But PEMRA did not ban this ad on the basis of its quality, but that it promoted contraceptives so what you're saying is besides the point.
We could have a Dalda cooking oil type ad coming out but instead of a family laughing together with a can of oil we could have an ad about contraceptives. That would still be banned.
Editior this should be banned,because According to Mathira is not According to Islam.there are lot of adds to that should be banned.. Its not our ideology,, how the mind is controled and washed through these ads...!!you should know..!! We are nothing without Islam..!!!
and what about the pregnancy test ad??? who is it addressing and why???
The content of the ad was pointed out to be improper not the message. they should come up with better ideas and this whole problem would be solved.
Does anybody knows whether it is halal?
@Haris Chaudhry: Can you sit and watch that ad sitting with your mom or little sister? The point being the ad was in no way to promote birth control, flavoured condoms forgodsakes which is to promote only one thing! stop being a pseudo liberal, the ad will only promote indecency, masses in this country stilll have some eastern culture left, there are other better ways to promote birth control, and i guess green star marketing is doing that.
@Mj: The only way we can come head to head with the US
@Breaking Bad: I hope everyone understands the frustration of a parent whose kids (10 and under) are walking around the house when these ads are on air.
If 10 year olds and under have Internet, they probably already know lot more about sex.
Just viewed the ad and it is pathetic. Its not vulgar, its simply badly made. And its even more pathetic that there is a debate going on over it. Don't you people have better things to do ?
Please avoid these condoms, they are covered with non-halal flavors
Liberal extremists on fire.. why dont you all buy your 8-10 year old boys contraception and give them sex education.would be so appropriate right
Hahahahahaha....
TV is a good tool for education. We should educate peoples. We Pakistanis has double standardz. In bed rooms we are watching porn and focus each girl on street like a protitute but don,t need guideline or education what is right or wrong. We are the most hated and corrupt peoples on the earth and talk about moral values. Our news are full with rapes, honour killing etc, can you stop that too, shame on us who criticise on every right move.
PEMRA shouldn't have banned the ad. Maybe control when it is allowed to air but NOT BAN.
PEMRA is teethless. The Ad is still being telecast. Just saw it (10:35 pm)
Kudos to them for trying; hopefully it will run again - for both family plannning and hiv/aids prevention
No sex please we are Pakistani
At this rate, you guys are going to leave the Saudis behind.
Population is the single most important factor that is sufficient to make the future of this country unsustainable. But the pathetic mentallity is not even want to listen. Be ready for food crisis, famine and civit war
@Amna: I don't think godaddy.com is what you think it is. lol
Pemra needs fresh blood. The people there are primitive and far from reality. Someone there had to much power.
More suitable name is Hosh not josh
feelt so sad by reading the commint , as these are the educated people of my country, every one percieved the ad wrong as PEMRA got complaints not against JOSH , but against the way thy had presented it, as every one in home watching tv with family and wht the small children would think and how bad these kind of ads would affect them.
This is prempting a possible sou moto by the Chief Justice. Once bitten twice shy.
@Mj: mr this advertisement could have been made in another way,,, people are not against josh people are against the way they had advertised.
Have you guys actually watched this ridiculous ad? It doesn't deal with STD, birth control or over population; the only thing it does promote is sex. Pretty sure the youth and children of this country are not suitable audience for this onslaught.
lol
All those PAMRA bashers, did you forget "Saathi"? Their ad was decent enough that you dont feel uncomfortable with in your house. That saathi ad. ran for more than a decade and everybody know what it is. We are just raising the bar for indecency with these kind of ads.
I think in the holy month of Ramzan, may be the services of "Maulvi" hazrats should be used for condom ads.People may give more eyes and ears to such ads.
It's hard to understand whether the ad is vulgar or not without viewing it. Here's a link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151580517308795
What a disgusting, unacceptable, cheap advertisement. Is there no modesty, no shame left? Is this what Islam teaches and finds acceptable? I cannot believe action was not taken earlier.
The liberal fascists are squealing and wailing- its wirtten in their destiny to do so.
Pemra did a great thing by banning this vulgar advertisement. For once we have shown that our society does not accept vulgarity and obscenity.
@bharatvarsh:
go worry about your politicians poisoning school kids veggie eater.
"perceived as indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard to our socio-cultural and religious values."
its ok to have maulvis preach hate against other groups, because thats not indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard of our socio-cultural and religious values? well done PEMRA.
PEMRA bars the ad but cannot see other crap shown by these channels. Vulgar songs are being shown by Geo TV at the time sehri and Iftari. Where is PEMRA for these things?
Banning the ad is Stupid. Please start using your brain please.
It seems every one in the society has just closed eyes and let them flow where the water takes them. Being a muslim society, and if one like to call him/her a muslim, you need to thnk.
@Kaleem: The only safety measure most of our people (Men) know is keep the head away from wall !!
@Kaleem: The only safety measure most of people know is keep the head away from wall!!!
most foolish and retrogressive I would like to share an anecdote
a baby asked his parents how I was born the parents replied that an angle left you in the widows He asked how my brother was born they gave the same answer He asked how my sister was born they repeated the reply On this the baby said it means non of them was born in natural way three cheers for talibanisation
You all have it wrong. Banning condoms is the right thing to do. Islam is the fastest growing religion and soon it will have the biggest following, one way or the other... damn it!!!
I have not seen the ad, but I can be assured that this ad was cheap in nature because they used Mathira as a model in the ad. She is unfortunately seen as a 'sex icon' in this country and her affiliation with contraceptives is definitely more associated with vulgarity, rather than being informative ( regardless if she is in a 'ghungat'). Information concerning contraceptives has to be state-central, so that private companies do not use exploitative means of advertisement.
Contraceptive use has to be promoted, but the deliverance of message ought to be monitored.
How is family planning unholy? How and why is it related to fasting? Preventing pregnancies is not killing children. Using condoms or other preventives is simply planning for a better lifestyle and a better future. Common sense tells us that it's better to have two healthy, well-educated children than 5 malnutritioned, poorly educated ones. How can that be immoral?
Sanity prevails.....i dont need an advertisement to know how to use condoms.
Awareness about birth control and population control is very important. There have been contraceptive ads in the past for example Greenstar ads and they were informative. No one really had issues with that. But this particular ad. This was soooo not about educating the masses.
'Josh Condoms ... ab Strawberry men bhi.'
Topped with that horny couple, how does that educate the uneducated masses about the need of birth control?
Grow up people. For once, PEMRA did the right thing.
This shouldn't even be a news! lol there are much important issues going on in our country! anyway, everyone is aware of condoms these days! so whats the big deal if this ad has been taken off air?! the ad was just awful!
How can you educate people to prevent unwanted, unplanned childbirth, how at all you can discourage the people from growing like rabbits in a country which is so 'under populated' and with such an accute 'negative population growth' ? We should just let our population grow and let it explode and take us all with this explosion.
The people who are speaking against the banning of the ad have clearly not scene it. It is the most disgusting and cheap ad I have ever seen which does not in any way aim at educating the masses. If the ad was portrayed as being educational, then it would have been a different story altogether. And lets not forget,, if it targeted the uneducated and poor masses, who are mainly the cause of over-population; do not have enough money to feed themselves, how can one expect them to be enlightened enough to go through the effort of buying a condom! I am sure there can be many other effective mass media campaigns to educate our masses than through this stupid ad! And accept it or not, you and me maybe able to digest this, but most of our masses are not yet ready for such brazen commercials.
So people here, thinks that if we start talking about sex and condoms then we will get promoted
There should be severe action against those playing such ads on tv. They must be accountbale, should be tried in court.
Mathria is simply patehtic
No ban on Laskkar-e-Jhangvi though. These are priorities of the PMLN government.
Instead of the ban there should be rules regarding when the ad can be aired and during what type of programming and on which channel. I hope everyone understands the frustration of a parent whose kids (10 and under) are walking around the house when these ads are on air.
Keeping the population explosion aside, the add was a sheer portray of what is called ''Bay Ghairati''. What do they impart by propogating flavoured condom? Birth control? HUH!!!
Educating our people is immoral. Keep it up.
now wat else...polio ,modern education,contraceptive ads.
Well you cant be doing any "thing" in Ramadan anyways, so its ok to shut off this add during this month and restart after ramadan are over.
Pemra is wise: Sucide Bombing is the Population Control Measure +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ And when the women folk are not allowed to shop alone how can there be family control ?
By keeping in mind our family values and culture, all the TV Dramas, news (entertainment section) and advertisements should be produced / created so that we could watch TV programs with our parents and children. Every content of Indian movies & vulgarity should be banned by PEMRA. There are two to three rape cased in todays newspaper and PEMRA is responsible for the growing frustration in our country and allowing TV channels to air vulgarity.
You can bring horse to well but you can't make it drink water, not even condom ads can stop growing population or diseases. Only salvation is in increasing female education and sex education . I don't know if Pakistan ever will be ready for this..
For a country that is obsessed with porn this kind of ads should not be a big issue.
Keep churning out more children. The elite needs cheap servants!
Also I can't view the ad online because youtube is banned too!
I saw some children on their roofs flying baloons of this condom........they were demonstrating for "kam bache khushhaal gharana"!
The next basant should be celebrated with a multicoloured Condom-Baloon-festival on the roofs, streets and Minto Park of Lahore!
The only thing immoral about the advertisement is that it conveys that if you use josh condoms, then you can take mathira as your wife! She is as easy to get.
Well if you have to make a contraceptive ad, the least you could do is not make it in bad taste. having said that im sure having a limited family size cannot be against the constitution.
I dont know what pemra and people are trying to get out of the advertisement on subject issues.There isnt any harm to educate public about contraception through any mode even it is religously allowed. It is useless to bar when our nation is open to browse any pornography and vulgarity. I would recommend to outsource these regulators instead of institutiins as all these OGRa, pemra, nepra and PTA dont have capability and capacity to address challenges and issues faced.
Dear all please read carefully, its about only one ad, I never watched this one, but if its not appropriate then it can be banned, other ads about contracepton are televised daily.
Wish parents of Libidos moaning PEMRA's ban on condom ad had used the product so we could 've been spared of their moronic offspring
May be it is Mathira, not the condoms for what PAMRA banned this ad. Also the ad is quite unfair showing that man has no visual beauty but being pampered by a model due to condoms. I wonder if there would be an ad for female condoms then this ad concept should be applied other way round as this will be quite fit for Mathira.
Everyone knows how to be safe while doing sex. We are not kids anymore, this ad was promotion of a company, not to educate masses, but to sell their stuff. Grow up please!
This is sick. The population is exploding, the country is running low on resources. A population that is poor, and radical, with sex as the only form of entertainment. Not educating it about contraceptives, and family planning will result in a major national security risk. Either teach this at schools for the next generation, or allow tv commercials. I'm for both.
PEMRA is dumb and short sighted
Good idea. Keep on breeding, after all a population of 250+ million is only a matter of time. Who cares if the country is not able to feed, clothe or educate most of them? After all they will substantiallly enhance the world population of the great Muslim ummah.
Only in Pakistan, condoms ads are banned! look for the brighter side...both our people and PEMRA are sick!
Simply a step backwards for Pakistan. No, over population is not a problem for this country. No, not at all. . . "perceived as indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard to our socio-cultural and religious values" Islam promotes child welfare (of course I would add), so there must be something wrong with how we perceive those religious values rather than those religious values per se. And if the socio-cultural values do not promote the welfare of the family, well, there must be something wrong with those socio-cultural values.
Hahahahaha!
Is the ad got the approval from the censor board of Pakistan ? if approved the ban can be challenged in the court but the producer won't do it.
How about Indian ads, when PEMRA going to put the ban on them?
Is the advertisement not approved by the censor board before airing ? If it is approved banning can be challenged in the court
ad seemed fine...only thing that seemed retarded were the guys facial expression!
Because no one in Pakistan ever has sex. Why would we need contraceptives if we aren't getting any action? Genius move, pemra.
You have got to be joking.
Thank You PEMRA, the ad was a disgrace to the industry, I am sure this ad would not be aired anywhere in the world.
“perceived as indecent, immoral and in sheer disregard to our socio-cultural and religious values.”
What values? Sheer disregard for family planning?! Pathetic.
There is no harm in advertising contraceptive including condoms, however, this particular ad was pretty distasteful.
I haven't seen the ad but Pakistanis need to be familiarized with the concept of contraceptives. Limiting the family size is in the good of the country
Lol. No Comments!!
PEMRA should be banned.
That is the power of Josh !!
Welcome on board to the desert express we are going back to the 7th century.
yes..yes this is really a very serious matter and must immediately be presented to the court of His Lordship CJ of Pakistan for proper guidance and adjudication..
Now Islam bars contraceptive ads . Tomorrow it will be the turn of HIV education and ads.Keep going!!!
Well this was the most disgusting condom ad I have ever seen, the man he looked so HORNY and utterly disgusting please make ads according to market this is not America even if this was they would feel disgusting copy of goddaddy.com FAIL ATTEMPT FAIL ADVERTISMENT.
Pathetic! They should come up with better ideas.
I didnt know pampering ones husband was against the constitution of this country. So just to be clear, are a husband and wife supposed to act like they dont know each other if someone else is around?
Yeah. Because this country doesn't need condoms. Population is out of control and we are banning condom commercials. Now idiots will come and say that these adds encourage young children to have sex.
Possibly getting STDs and Aids is not immoral, but the ad is?
Birth control to enable maternal and child health, sufficient attention and good education prospects for children and a better standard of living subsequently is against our socio-cultural and religious values - Back to dark-ages !
Condoms are against the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan ..! :) I mean, does it ever get better than that !!!!
Hilarious!
Lets just wait until our population hits 300 million, since we're too 'masoom' to handle a contraceptive ad.