The scales will be evenly balanced when two senior executives from the tobacco and beer industries take on officials from organisations opposed to drinking and smoking at a seminar organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) on Wednesday.

The subject is: "Ban on advertising alcohol and tobacco - is it really necessary?''. Gottfried Thoma, Managing Diector/CEO of Ceylon tobacco and Suresh Shah, Director/CEO of the Ceylon Brewery will represent the affected industries.

On the other side will be Dr. Diyanath Samarasinghe, Chairman of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board and Dr. Sajeeva Ranaweera, Committee Member on Tobacco, Alcohol and Illicit Drugs of the Sri Lanka Medical Association.

Mr. Frank Samaraweera, management consultant and National Marketing Consultant of UNIDO will serve as moderator.

The organisers said that a number of experts will be available to present their views for and against the ban and expected a `spirited' discussion.

The evening meeting of SLIM at which the discussion take place begins at 5.30 p.m. at `On Golden Pond' of the Hotel Taj Samudra on Sept. 23.