Shabnam Sengupta
A few weeks ago trolls had a field day when a smartwatch brand printed an ad in national dailies featuring India’s most favourite cricketer. The ad showcased a close-up of a smartwatch displaying data that are physiologically impossible to achieve.
The incident lays open the lack of health literacy and awareness among even the educated corporate world. And not all misinformation is harmless and funny. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body to address the misinformation in advertisements, has said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, only 12 of 332 ads related to pandemic were found to be scientifically correct. In fact, ASCI was directed by the Ministry of Ayush in its advisory on April 1, 2020, to track such ads.
To tackle misinformation in advertising, India currently has two independent bodies. One is a government regulation body called the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) that is responsible for the regulation of matters related to the violations of consumer rights, unfair trade practices and misleading advertisements. The other body is ASCI.
According to Section 21 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the authority has the powers to stop false or misleading ads. If CCPA finds any advertisement ‘false or prejudicial to the interest of the consumer’, it can impose a fine up to `20 lakh, along with imprisonment for up to two years on the producers or endorsers. For repeated offences, this fine may go up to `50 lakh and additional imprisonment up to 5 years.
While CCPA is focused on misleading ads, the ASCI code covers three other areas of inappropriate representation including indecent or offensive, unsafe and harmful products or situations, and unfair competition in advertising. It works in close collaboration with government bodies, including the CCPA, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the Ministry of Ayush. It also collaborates with regulators like the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to fine-tune the guidelines and formulate newer ones. With the CPA, 2019, coming into effect, any existing loopholes in the system are being closed. Even the celebrities have to now follow strict due diligence about the products and services they endorse.
Creating large-scale awareness among ad makers and consumers about fact checking health information is also important. Today, there are independent third party fact checkers who can help you fact check any health message before you act on it. Consumer awareness initiatives where users fact check every claim will be able to drive cleaner brand messaging. Brands will be conscious if consumers start pointing out the loopholes in their messaging. That’s not the kind of negative publicity any brand will want.
The author works with The Healthy Indian Project