If You Lip-Sync, Say So in Your Advertising

Now that Verkhovna Rada’s amendments to the laws On the Protection of Consumer Rights and On Advertising are in force, information relating to concerts, contests, and festivals must specify use of soundtracks with vocal, instrumental, or vocal-instrumental parts. The same is true of the so-called minus soundtracks: the singer’s musical accompaniment on tape.

When advertising any such performances, information about what is live and what is canned must be provided under all conditions, occupying not less that 5% of the advertising space.

These changes in the law actually make it imperative that a performer inform his potential audiences whether or not they will get a live performance of the music they pay to hear. Over 90% of pop singers, among them rock stars, are known to use minus soundtracks at best or just lip-sync while a vocal- instrumental tape is played (as evidenced by the embarrassing experiences of some noted singers when they would continue to move their lips in front of the mike after the soundtrack suddenly stopped). Barring such mishaps, people never knew if they would hear their favorite performer live or just watch their idol go through the motions onstage with a high-tech soundtrack doing the real work. Sometimes, after paying several hundred hryvnias for a ticket we left feeling cheated. From the legal standpoint, the situation should be classified as hidden consumer fraud, because the product purchased was not as real as the buyer expected. For this reason, lawmakers acted quite logically is fixing this legal loophole.

Now, after reading that a concert will use soundtracks, people could well think twice before coughing up the cash for pricey tickets, just to see a rock star move his or her lips and other body parts, trying to keep pace with the soundtrack. Would it not make more sense buy a good video cassette? True, there are fans who want to see their rock star, soundtracks or not, and feel the atmosphere of a rock concert.

Naturally, the amendments will impact on performers’ popularity, because playing a top quality studio tape and singing to a live audience are very different things.

Likewise, few will be happy to reveal the secrets of their performances; some will also pretend to forget about the new advertising clause, but it will be interesting to see whom among Ukraine’s musical celebrities will be first to comply.