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ASCI: Advertising Standard Council of India

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is a non-profit organization established in 1985 to self-regulate the advertising industry, ensuring advertisements conform to its established code. ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) addresses complaints regarding misleading or false advertisements and aims to uphold truthfulness, decency, and fair competition in advertising. Recent developments include new guidelines for social media influencers to disclose paid promotions, while ASCI continues to adapt to emerging digital marketing trends.

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ASCI
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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)
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
 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.
 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.
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