THIS January many cities in India sported hoardings of a young woman tied up in yellow duct tape, with ?Sale? written all over her. This was an ad for Titan Fastrack that talked about a 20% discount on watches, bags and sunglasses. After complaints from consumers, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) decided to look into it. But even before the matter came up for hearing at the consumer complaints council (CCC), a wing of the ASCI that comprises people from all walks of life such as lawyers and social activists, Titan on its own accord took down those hoardings. Titan had been informed by the the ASCI that the matter was up for hearing.
The ASCI is the collective conscience of Indian advertising and today, its recommendations see a compliance rate of 92%. The body has been very active of late, and everything from a vaginal tightening cream (18 Again) to Amitabh Bachchan?s stone pelting act in a Kaccha Mango Bite ad for Parle Products has invited the ire of the consumer complaints committee. Education is a particularly troublesome area for ASCI, along with drugs and magic remedies. For counterfeit products in the area of drugs or remedies, ASCI specifically seeks the intervention of government authorities since these are criminal in nature. The advertising watchdog recently found that the health and personal care product or service ads of as many as 80 advertisers were misleading and false, and not adequately or scientifically substantiated. It also said that a host of healthcare products or service ads contravened provisions of the Drug & Magic Remedies Act. Some of the advertisers in the net include Marico, Procter and Gamble Hygeine and Healthcare, Dabur India (Fem fairness bleach) and Satya Pharamaceticals. In January this year, ASCI and its CCC wing upheld complaints against 134 ads. Advertisements in personal and healthcare sector category were found to be the major offenders, comprising around 77% of total misleading advertisements.
The body was established in 1985 with a commitment to self-regulate Indian advertising. Paritosh Joshi, director, Provocateur?an independent media and communications consultancy and part of the ASCI consumer complaints council, explains that as long as advertising is truthful and fair and within standards of public decency and safe in usage and is fair in terms of competition and information, it should not invite complaints from consumers or intervention from the body.
As a part of its recent initiatives, the body now tracks for compliance through an advertising expenditure monitoring service of Tam Media Research where every single ad on television and print, against which a complaint has been upheld by the ASCI, is withheld. ?The current tracking data shows that only about 8% of such ads in print is released after the CCC upholds a complaint. This means that the compliance rate is 92% and only small advertisers, in non-metro print editions, do not comply,? says Partha Rakshit, chairman of ASCI.
Driven by the changing times, the ASCI also aspires to do more in the area of online content. ?As online advertising picks up volume in India, the internet media needs to adopt the ASCI code and ensure its compliance by becoming its members. Progress is good with Google and Yahoo becoming members. We need to work on monitoring of advertising as we have done for print and television under National Advertis- ing Monitoring Service (NAMS). We should ensure better compliance by user loaded commercial ad content,? says Rakshit. Adds Joshi, ?While ASCI was not traditionally designed to look at digital media, we have entertained complaints that have arrived in digital such as VAT 69 gaming.?
The new world of advertising is a free-flowing one which leads to many complications for the ASCI. ?At some point, the body will also have to consider how it addresses the huge area of branded entertainment and its loopholes as far as adequate disclosures go,? said an executive involved with the ASCI who declined to be named. But ASCI secretary-general Alan Colaco said that the watchdog has no plans to venture into the ?content? side of the business.
The body, however, can be credited with many new measures, especially on turn-around time. The ASCI won a Gold Global Best Practice Award at The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) Award for ?significantly reducing? average time taken to handle complaints. The ASCI is credited with reducing the lead time for processing of complaints from an average of 45 days in 2011 to 28 days in 2012 and 12 days in 2013. While the ASCI?s rulings on television are mandatorily adhered to, because of inclusion in the Cable TV Networks Regulation Act, print is another animal altogether. ?The thing about print is that it is not governed by any law, unless the concerned publication does something seditious and its licence is revoked. The Press Council of India should have some say, but doesn?t. Most publishers disregard what the Press Council puts out,? says Joshi adding that this makes things trickier for the ASCI as far as compliance goes.
There have been various attempts by successive governments to try and regulate advertising. ?The government?by its very nature and essence?is machiavellian. And that goes for any government, irrespective of the party involved,? said Prahlad Kakar, ad film maker, Genesis Films.
In March last year, the ministry of consumer affairs had announced its intent to establish a National Consumer Protection Agency (NCPA). The putative trigger for this was the inability of the ASCI to adequately defend the consumer against errant advertising. In February this year, the Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC), under the chairmanship of food and consumer affairs minister K V Thomas, decided to set up a sub-committee to suggest strategies to deal with such advertisers. Among the concerns raised was peddling of products by celebrities. While a big part of the discussion was the impact of misleading advertisements, the more important part was the liability of celebrities for wrongful endorsements. ?Some departments of the government such as the Food Safety and Standards Authority Of India (FSSAI) and consumer affairs ministry feel the need to regulate advertising content. The ASCI is in the process of convincing these departments to follow the ministry of information and broadcasting model of sending complaints they get to ASCI first and take action as per existing law only in case of non-compliance of CCC decisions,? said Rakshit. ?Not only has the ministry of information and broadcasting incorporated the ASCI?s code in Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act but it has also invited the ASCI to be the only non-government member of its inter ministerial monitoring committee formed to regulate TV programme and advertising content. Other ministries such as health and consumer affairs have included the ASCI in their committees formed to regulate ad content,? he added.
Kakar said that the government is like the proverbial camel that sticks its head into the tent. It gets its head in and before you know it, the tent is taken over by the camel. ?Successive governments have tried to regulate advertising, but it?s more pronounced under the UPA. The government has been threatening censorship of advertising, and the industry has had to get proactive and tell the government to direct all such complaints (on ads) to us. The fact is that if the regulation of advertising were to go to a statutory body under the government, it could become another centre of corruption. Also, this is an area that is best judged by peers because a lot of the messages could be sublime in implication,? he said. Kakar says that if regulation of advertising is taken over by a government body, it is tantamount to being draconian.
Bharat Patel, former chairman of Procter & Gamble India has been associated with the ASCI for more than 15 years. ?Fifteen years ago, the number of ads especially on television?given the limited number of channels?were much less. CCC met once a month and each month 10-15 complaints were adjudged. The interest and concern regarding ad content then was limited within the ad sector. Now it?s not just the industry but regulators, activists, media and consumers who are concerned when they see an indecent ad or an ad making a false claim.?
Bharat Kapadia, the founder of Ideas@BharatKapadia.com, a specialised marketing and media consultancy, has been part of ASCI in the past in the capacity of vice-chairperson. He recalls an incident where tobacco firms feared legislation on advertising, and had approached ASCI in order to formulate a code. They were looking for self-regulation, rather than compulsory legislation being thrust on them. ?We formulated a code but they wanted to modify it to suit their interests. We stood our ground and refused,? said Kapadia. Another executive, who did not want to be named, recalls the incident with the tobacco companies. ?What they wanted changed was the guidelines regarding surrogate advertising. It was our contention that any advertising for a brand similar in name to a cigarette brand should not be allowed. At
that point of time, Wills had signed on Akshay Kumar and most of
them were completely opposed to the idea. In time, the legislation came in and restrictions were put on advertising for liquor companies.?
Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director at Madison, says that ?ASCI is a ?demanding mistress? and requires a lot of time from its governing members. ?A large number of ads in the health and education sectors seem to be putting out a lot of unsubstantiated claims with regard to slimming and placements. We were hoping to address them with the active support of media partners,? he said. He added that the incorporation of ?compliance with ASCI code? in cable television rules has been a very important step in giving teeth to ASCI. ?We are now pursuing and hoping for similar support in print with perhaps the Press Council adopting our code,? he said.
Arvind Sharma, former chairman of Leo Burnett India says that online advertising is a rapidly growing force and it poses a new set of challenges. ?The issues involved are philosophically and technologically complex. We have been engaging actively with online publishers as well as technology firms to make progress in this area.? He added that the online complaint management system has made it easy for consumers to register complaints. ?This has resulted in several fold increase in the number of complaints we receive. Under the NAMS service, ASCI monitors approximately 1500 new television and 45,000 newspaper ads released every month.?
Alque Padamsee, Lintas veteran and playwright, said that the ASCI?s work, though in the right direction, was rather erratic. ?I feel that a lot of exaggerated claims in advertising are not being pulled up by ASCI. The body also needs to promote itself better. They could start off with something as simple as ?If an ad is telling a lie, ask ASCI?.? Padamsee says that if all forms of advertising comes under the ASCI scanner ? in the long run, things will be on the right track. He also feels that expecting a certain amount of accountability from celebrities is not wrong. ?I absolutely believe that every celebrity should use the product, before they endorse it.? Joshi from ASCI?s CCC disputes the claim that most people don?t know about ASCI. It has advertised via pro bono work done by agencies such as BBH, and run pro-bono ads on television and other mediums. For broadcasters, ad inventory is well priced and limited, and there is only that airtime which can be given to ASCI. Joshi says that ASCI has been largely successful in its endeavours. He says that ASCI should not be seen as a watchdog or a policeman, as much as an agent of positive change. Thus he also believes that there could be a lot of overlap with other bodies that are active in the areas of consumer protection?such as the consumer affairs ministry, the Consumer Guidance Society of India and consumer courts. ?ASCI?s ambit is not exclusive though we are limited to marketing communications. Consumer protection is a huge area.?
