Self Control is Failing In the Advertisement Industry

87 Advertisements Termed Misleading By ASCI and Taken Down: The Economic Times

Takeaways from discussion I had with someone! Not Necessary That I Support Them, but they are valid enough to be discussed!

 Advertising Standards Council of India, the self-regulatory voluntary organization of the advertising industry in India has upheld complaints against 87 advertisements and ordered that they be taken down. This is not the first time. Every month, a similar number of advertisements are found to be violating the standard guidelines and are taken down.

With such high number of misleading advertisements taken down month after month, self control does not seem to be working. This will make it a good ground for someone to push for a certifying body to screen advts before they reach out to customers. Think of this.

ASCI is empowered to recall advertisements, but what about accountability? Till some years ago, advertising campaigns were run for longer duration. But these days, with the fast paced developments, most advt campaigns often run for short duration, like a week or fortnight, even less. See those sale days by offline and online retail stores.

So if a brand starts an advt campaign, and is objectionable,  it may take upto 2 months for someone to complain and for ASCI to take action. The campaign was only supposed to run for 15 days, so taking it down two months later does not affect the advertiser as it has already misled the public and taken advantage.

The advertiser has no accountability to undo the effects of the misleading claim. ASCI cannot ask the advertisers to tell customers that their advt is taken down and the claim they earlier made was misleading. The public who has seen the advertisement, will continue to live with the claim made in the now taken-down advertisement and will continue to act on it. 

Advertiser or the agency do not get penalised in case their advertisement is ruled to be misleading or unsubstantiated. Hence, this system of self regulation does not serve the purpose as a retrospective action does not protect the customer from being misled. 

Hence, there should be a regulatory authority that will screens advertisements on various parameters before they reach out to the customers. 

Another side discussion was that Brands should incorporate an indemnity clause in their contracts with the advt agency which makes the agency accountable. Like, if any advt gets pulled down by ASCI, the agency will have to refund 50% of the fees.

What are your views?