The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), established in 1985, is committed to the cause of Self-Regulation in Advertising, ensuring the protection of the interests of consumers. ASCI was formed with the support of all four sectors connected with Advertising- Advertisers, Advertising Agencies, Media (including Broadcasters and the Press) and others like PR Agencies and Market Research Companies.

1. ASCI

2. ASCI
 Advertising Standard Council of India
 Formed in 1985
 Non Profit Organization
 ASCI is a self-regulatory organization for the
advertising industry.
 Mission: to maintain and enhance the public
confidence in advertising.

3. ASCI
 ASCI seeks to ensure that advertisements conform to its
Code for Self-Regulation.
 It looks into complaints across All Media.
 Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) is ASCI’s heart and
soul.
 The ASCI and its Consumer Complaints Council deals with
complaints received from consumers and Industry, against
advertisements which are considered as False, Misleading,
Indecent, Illegal, leading to Unsafe practices, or Unfair to
competition.
 The CCC decides upon the complaints within a period of 4 to
6 weeks.

4. 4 Code Of ASCI
 Honest Representations: Truthful and Honest to
consumers and competitors.
 Non-Offensive to Public: Within the bounds of
generally accepted standards of public decency and
propriety.
 Against Harmful Products/Situations: Not used
indiscriminately for the promotion of products,
hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals
particularly minors, to a degree unacceptable to society
at large.
 Fair in Competition: Not derogatory to competition.
No plagiarism.

5. OBJECTIVES
 Safeguarding against the indiscriminate use of advertising for
the promotion of products or services, which are generally
regarded as hazardous to society or to individuals or which are
unacceptable to society as a whole.
 Ensuring the truthfulness and honesty of representations and
claims made through advertising and safeguarding against
misleading advertising.
 Ensuring that advertising is not offensive to generally accepted
norms and standards of public decency.
 Ensuring that advertisements observe fairness in competition
and the canons of generally accepted competitive behavior.

6. The Role and Functioning of the ASCI & its
Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) in dealing
with complaints received from consumers and
industry, against ads which are considered as
false, misleading, indecent, illegal, leading to
unsafe practices, or unfair to competition, and
consequently in contravention of the ASCI code
for self-regulation in advertising.

7. Members
 ASCI has 16 members in its Board of Governors, four
each representing the key sectors such as
Advertisers, advertising agencies, media and allied
professions such as market research, consulting, business
education etc.
 Subhash Kamath (Chairman)
N.S. Rajan (Vice Chairman)
Shashidhar Sinha (Honorary Treasurer)
Manisha Kapoor (Secretary General)
 CCC: 28 Members (16Civil Servants & 12 Advertising
Practitioners)

8. Cable Television ‘Networks (Amendment) Rules,
2006
 The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)
became more powerful after a recent Government
notification in The Gazette of India: Extraordinary
{Part II – sec. 3(i)}, on 2 August 2006 by which TV
commercials must abide by the Advertising Standards
Council of India (ASCI) code. The amendment made in
Cable Television ‘Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2006
now states that “(9) No advertisement which violates
the Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising, as adopted
by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI),
Mumbai for public exhibition in India, from time to
time, shall be carried in the cable service”.

9. Redressal Complaint
 A letter directed to the Secretary General of ASCI.
 Official email of ASCI.
 Registering a complaint online on the website of ASCI.
 Phone call.
 All the complaints received are ultimately dealt with by the Consumer
Complaints Committee. When a complaint is received, the Secretary
General shall acknowledge it and ask for complaints from the advertiser
against whom the complaint has been filed. The parties involved shall be
allowed to present their case, and a decision shall be taken within a period
of 4-6 weeks. If the Committee finds that the advertisement is violative of
the guidelines, it shall inform the same to the parties within 5 days. The
advertiser shall be given a period of 2 weeks to make the necessary
changes, failing which the ASCI will publish the advertisement in its
quarterly release which is circulated pan-India.

10. Recent Developments
 The Advertising Standards Council of India
(ASCI) will launch an integrated consumer
connect initiative to raise awareness about
misleading advertisements, titled 'Chup mat baitho'
(don't sit quietly).
 ASCI urging consumers to report advertisements
that are offensive, misleading.

11. Recent Developments
 "Ten years ago, ASCI processes were mostly
restricted to television, print and outdoor. With
social media, influencers and digital marketing
becoming big, our focus has been to track this
emerging space as well...We can't just be focused
on television and print but must also look at the
whole digital ecosystem," said Subhash Kamath,
Chairman, ASCI.

12. CASES
 The CCC found that the claims of Hindustan Unilever
Ltd (HUL) for its lever ayush soap saying 'based
on 5,000 year old ayurved scriptures with 15 ayurvedic
herbs' besides other claims were inadequately
substantiated and are misleading.
 Similarly, Dabur India was pulled up for its
advertisement of Dabur lal tel which
claimed 'Dugni tezi se sharirik vikas'. The ad regulator
said the claim was valid for babies up to six months of
age and there was a discrepancy in the ad as it showed
the baby getting up and walking towards the mother
indicating the age to be more than six months.

13.  Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has issued a
set of draft guidelines for influencers on social media.
 Imposed from April 15,2021.
 ASCI has made these new rules to help people distinguish
between advertisements and content that was independently
created by the influencer.
 From now on, if an influencer posts a video, photo, audio,
Live, or any form of content on Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest or any social media platform
and if the influencer has been paid by a company to
promote their product via the post, then the influencer must
make sure that it is clear mentioned in the video and that
there are appropriate labels such as #ad, #collab, #promo,
#sponsored, and #partnership. The ASCI also said that these
labels must be visible on any device.

14.  Another rule is - For example if the influencer is
promoting a cream and the company says the creams
will get rid of wrinkles in 7 days, then it is the
influencer’s responsibility to check its scientific and
performance claims.. This will be the same for any
product. As per the guidelines, the influencers
shouldn't use filters that exaggerate the brand's claims,
for example beauty filters that radically improve
appearance.

15. THANK YOU