Advertising Standards Council of India Archives

Mumbai, India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has released its half-year report on complaints on the local Indian advertising scene, and has noted that healthcare emerged as the most violative sector, constituting 21% of all processed ads, followed by classical education and personal care at 18% each.

The report shows a 34% increase in complaints (4491) processed, coupled with a corresponding 27% rise in the number of ads processed (3501).

Moreover, Out of 3,501 ads processed, 564 (16%) were flagged as potential direct violations of the law, which represents a 22% increase over the previous year. 35% of the total ads processed were not contested and were promptly withdrawn or modified.

A further 47% of ads were found violative of the ASCI Code and the advertisements were recommended to be withdrawn or modified. Only 2% of complaints were dismissed.

Meanwhile, of the 3,501 complaints processed, digital media remained the primary source of violations at 79%. Print media and television contributed 17% and 3%, respectively, while other mediums accounted for 2% of the reported violations.

Lastly, consumer complaints comprised 21.3% of the total complaints, indicating significant public engagement in upholding advertising standards. 75.4% of complaints were initiated suomotu by ASCI.

It is also worth noting that in the digital advertising sphere, influencers contributed to 22% of total ads complained against at ASCI. 99.4% of advertisements processed for influencer guidelines were found to be in violation. ASCI received compliance with its recommendations in 92% of influencer cases taken up v/s 86% in previous years, signalling greater compliance with ASCI’s CCC recommendations.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary-general at ASCI said, “ASCI remains committed to addressing the challenges posed by digital advertising. All stakeholders need to come together to tackle the issue of online safety of consumers given that they spend high amounts of time there, and where there is a proliferation of objectionable advertising.”

She added, “Our constant vigilance of the online space helps call out the advertisements and brands that violate the ASCI code requiring ads to be truthful, decent and safe. We hope that the various sectors recognise the breaches and commit to more responsible advertising.”

India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced that it has updated advertising guidelines for educational institutions, organisations and platforms. Said guidelines have also centred on putting the mental health and physical well-being of students in focus.

ASCI has noted that the education sector has been amongst the top violative sectors for the past few years when it comes to advertising. In its Annual Complaints Report 2022–23, classical education ranked second among the top violative categories with 13.8% of total ads that did not adhere to ASCI’s guidelines.

Public consultation for the guidelines started on March 14, 2023, and was concluded on April 15, 2023.

While ASCI’s existing education guidelines require educational entities to substantiate any claims they make in their advertisements with relevant evidence, this latest update ensures that the advertisers are also mindful that their ads consider the students’ mental and physical well-being.

The amendments state that ads by educational institutions, including universities, colleges and schools, coaching classes, edtech platforms and others that offer education and training programmes should not stereotype students based on their gender, or appearance, nor portray those who score low as unsuccessful or failures.

Shri Rohit Kumar Singh, the secretary for Ministry of Consumer Affairs said, “Education advertising touches almost every citizen in the country. Ensuring the sanctity of advertising in this sector is an important task. The ASCI guidelines address the various issues that plague the sector and we hope that the industry will follow these in letter and spirit. I would like to reiterate that misleading ads are also a violation of the Consumer Protection Act and all necessary steps will be taken to keep our citizens safe”.

Meanwhile, Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general at ASCI, commented, “In addition to ads not being misleading, the updated guidelines also provide for the physical and mental well-being of students, particularly school students. While fierce pressure in education is a reality, advertising must not perpetuate this problem. normalise it or exploit student and parental vulnerability.”

She added, “Based on our Ed-Next study, such issues were identified, and post extensive consultation with different stakeholders, we are now issuing the updated guidelines. ASCI remains deeply committed to consumer protection, and we will continue to update our Code to reflect contemporary and emerging concerns in advertising content.”

Mumbai, India – The International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS) has re-elected Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), as its vice president at the ICAS Awards 2023.

Kapoor has been an active member of ICAS and its vice president since May 2021. She is also at the forefront of advocating for ethical advertising practices and consumer protection.

In the event, ASCI also won ‘The Inspiration Award’, which highlighted the successful initiatives by the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) and its contribution towards ensuring higher ethical standards in Indian advertising. It also recognised ASCI’s thought leadership initiatives in creating a roadmap for more progressive advertising, through collaborations with multiple stakeholders.

Kapoor received the award at the ceremony held in Istanbul, which comprised awards and seminars on a global scale. It was attended by members of SROs, and officials from around the world.

On ASCI’s award and her re-election, Kapoor said, “We are honoured to receive the award and also at the re-election. The reappointment is a validation of the role that ASCI has played on the global platform over the past 35 years.”

She added, “Our association with ICAS is the next step towards taking the best advertising and self-regulation practises across borders, which can help in the development of the advertising sector while safeguarding the interests of consumers.”

She also shared that both recognitions will help advance the organisation’s shared goals and ensure that self-regulation remains an essential part of the industry.

Mumbai, India – Lack of transparency by influencers in India in regard to their brand affiliations is a key reason why they are most likely to get distanced from by their followers, a recent report from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has stated.

According to said data, 43% of the respondents agree that it is worth distancing themselves from the brand if they fail to disclose their brand affiliation. Other reasons include repetitive content (42%) and over-promotion of a product or service (41%).

This then leads to a high proportion of Indian consumers yearning for transparency and honesty from influencers, which was mostly agreed upon by 79% of the study participants.

Meanwhile, reasons for influencers to gain that trust would be having relatable content (57%) and injecting personal stories (53%).

Moreover, the report showed how simply being interlinked with each other renders a positive return in consumer sentiment. Around 64% of consumers felt the brand became more trustworthy when influencers endorsed it and vice versa— 58% of those surveyed thought that the influencers became more trustworthy when they endorsed the brand.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO & secretary general of ASCI, shared that they have long helped push forth the huge rate of transparency and honesty amongst influencers through its guideline implementations in 2021, where authorities from the Central Consumer Protection Authorities also now require disclosure of material connection between brands and influencers.

“Hence, non-disclosures are potential violations of the law. An important aspect of the dipstick is the revelation that non-transparency was among the prime reasons why influencers lost the trust of their followers. On the other hand, transparency in their communication significantly built trust,” she stated.

The new ASCI data comes right after a recent study made by the ad watchdog regarding top brand violators in the advertising scene, which saw personal care products drawing the most red flags.

Mumbai, India – In its latest report titled ‘Objectionable ads in the Beauty & Personal Care category and the rising impact of influencer marketing & D2C brands’, ad watchdog for India Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has revealed that the personal care sector has emerged amongst the top three violators.

According to ASCI, the personal care sector contributed to 12% of all objectionable advertisements it examined. The regulatory body processed complaints against 1,126 advertisements in the said sector from 2021 to 2022 and from Q1 to Q3 of 2022 until 2023.

The report has further unveiled that 5.7% of ads in violation of the ASCI Code were from the personal hygiene category, 30.3% from the skincare category, 24.7% from the cosmetics category, 19.4% from hair care, and 17.5% from multiple categories.

Social media influencers were responsible for 68% of the ads processed in the personal care category, out of which 92% violated the ASCI Code and required modifications. Of those, 77% were not contested and the voluntary compliance rate stood at 91%.

Meanwhile, 84% of violative ads belonged to D2C brands, which have a significant presence on social and digital platforms The platform split for violative ads in personal care was also divided amongst Instagram with 55.3%, YouTube with 25.9%, Facebook with 11.3%, and websites with 4.8%.

Speaking about the report, CEO and Secretary General of ASCI Manisha Kapoor said, “Personal care, particularly on digital platforms, is a high engagement space for consumers, and it is important that their interests be protected. Over the past few years, ASCI has constantly strived to update its guidelines to extend consumer protection to many emerging sectors and platforms.”

Kapoor likewise mentioned that the organisation’s AI-based digital monitoring made it possible to efficiently identify violations and drive compliance.

Moreover, the other top two violators mentioned in the report were education at 26% and healthcare at 15%. The launch of influencer guidelines in May 2021 along with ASCI’s AI-based tools has also added to the increased number of ads under scrutiny.

The report follows the amendments in ad disclaimers the ASCI has made last month.

Mumbai, India – In response to a recent survey stating that 80% of respondents do not notice disclaimers in ads, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has tightened its ‘Guidelines for Disclaimers made in supporting, limiting or explaining claims made in advertisements’.

The ASCI survey was done with 130 consumers, which also revealed that 33% of the respondents could not understand the disclaimers clearly even after adequate exposure time while 62% of them felt that the disclaimers were excessively long.

Moreover, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) have also observed that the frame of the advertisements containing the disclaimer was ‘very crowded’ and distracted the viewer’s focus.

To address these issues, ASCI has made some amendments to the guidelines, including limiting long and complex disclaimers to two full-length lines only. The disclaimers should also be readable, in a single frame, and must remain on screen for more than four seconds for every line.

Meanwhile, for regulatory requirements where the disclaimer exceeds two lines, additional hold duration should be inculcated. The ASCI also added that all forms of text appearing on screen at any one point in time should likewise be counted calculating the hold duration of disclaimers.

The ASCI has however retained guidelines such as restricting disclaimers from attempting to correct a misleading claim made in an advertisement and attempting to suppress material information with respect to the claim, amongst others.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary-general at ASCI commented on the amendments, stating, “While ASCI has had disclaimer guidelines since 2016, it was observed that over-use of disclaimers made it difficult for consumers to understand all the information presented in the ad. This is evident from our survey where 80% of consumers did not even notice the disclaimers.”

The ASCI has also previously partnered with K&S Partners to identify unfair trademark practices used by brands.

Mumbai, India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and intellectual property (IP) boutique K&S Partners, have joined hands to release a whitepaper titled ‘Misleading Advertisements and Trademarks – A Registration Conundrum’, which identifies the practice and instances of brands making misleading claims and representations through the use of trademarks.

Brands and advertisers often cite trademark registrations as a defence, these words or phrases mislead consumers. With this paper, ASCI and K&S Partners argue that such a defence is not valid, as making misleading representations violates the ASCI code, the Consumer Protection Act, and the Trade Marks Act itself.

Moreover, the paper calls for greater scrutiny and restraint in permitting descriptive trademarks to brands, and to ensure that such trademarks are not a false representation of the product.

“At ASCI we see cases where the advertiser uses a trademark registration to defend their direct or implied claims, asserting that a trademark registration means that the claim is good in law. This is not true, and we would ask brands to be cautious in using untrue, exaggerated or misleading phrases to describe their products, whether trademarks or not,” said Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general at ASCI.

Meanwhile, Prashant Gupta, partner at K&S Partners, shared that the issue concerning false, unsubstantiated, and dishonest advertisements, under the guise of descriptive or laudatory trademarks, is grave.

“Protecting consumers from deception is one of the principal tenets of the ASCI Code, the Trade Marks Act, and the Consumer Protection Act. The Trademark Office needs to raise the threshold for descriptive or laudatory trademarks, failing which, protecting consumers’ rights from fraudulent marks and making informed choices would be severely compromised,” said Gupta.

Mumbai, India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has elected NS Rajan, director of August One Partners LLP, as its new chairman of the board of governors.

Rajan is a public relations veteran with a demonstrated history of setting up and managing firms in the PR industry. He was earlier the founder and managing director of Ketchum Sampark, an Omnicom Group Company.

In a statement, Rajan said that in his leadership at ASCI, he will focus on thought leadership initiatives, industry reports and its ASCI Academy to take ASCI ahead into the future.

He also looks forward to advancing the agenda of the Council to rapidly increase ASCI awareness among consumers so that they engage more readily and in greater numbers, voicing their concerns, anxieties, and questions about what they experience in the form of thousands of ads per day.

“I would also focus on ASCI’s efforts more towards prevention, in addition to the robust corrective mechanisms we have built over the decades. This we would do by using the several initiatives already in play – whether advice, guidance, training, or self-regulation,” Rajan said.

He added, “The third pillar would be to keep ahead of the fast-expanding and fractionalising digital domain to ensure that responsible advertising principles are followed equally across all media and consumer engagements by advertising in every form. A lot has been done by ASCI over the last several years, and I am committed to seeing that the momentum generated by all past efforts is kept alive or even pushed forward with greater speed.”

Meanwhile, outgoing chairman Subhash Kamath commented, “The past two years have been truly transformational for ASCI. Our vision of making ASCI more future-ready by taking on the challenges of a digital world and a fast-changing communication landscape, and by adding value to the industry through more agility, responsiveness, services, and thought leadership, has started showing results.”

He added, “I’m sure ASCI will continue to grow from strength to strength in the coming years. It’s been a privilege to serve as its chairman and I thank the board, the CCC members and the wonderful secretariat team for making it possible.”

Delhi, India – The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) have released a set of guidelines that lay down boundaries for unacceptable portrayals and encourage advertisers to create more progressive gender depictions.

The guidelines were announced in an event held at India Habitat Centre and is presided by Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, following the launch of its GenderNext report in October 2021, a study by ASCI and Futurebrands.

The guidelines encourage advertisers and creators to deploy the SEA (Self-esteemed – Empowered – Allied) framework that guides stakeholders in imagining as well as evaluating portrayals of gender in their advertising by building empathy and aiding evaluation, as well as the 3S framework, which provides a checklist to guard against tropes and implicit stereotypes that creep into advertising.

“Gender portrayal is a complex and nuanced issue and the guidelines provide an interpretation of ASCI’s Chapter III (related to harmful situations), which deals with ads that can cause harm to individuals or society. Gender stereotypes are harmful because they lock individuals in certain roles and perpetuate certain dynamics that are harmful to society. Advertising, through subtle and implicit depictions, reinforces certain harmful stereotypes and overlooks the aspirations of individuals and groups,” ASCI said in a press statement.

These frameworks can prove to be extremely useful for marketing and advertising professionals to improve their advertising ROIs.

Speaking on the guidelines release, Irani said, “While there are women who are happy with the incremental change that has been made in the advertising industry, women of my generation are a bit more impatient. It is time not only for the men but also for the women in the advertising industry to step up. This is a very important move, and I believe that there is a long journey to be undertaken to turn the thinking but it’s required now. Work in this area must move with more and more speed and organisations like ASCI should lead this, the action beginning with its member base.”

Meanwhile, Subhash Kamath, chairman at ASCI, commented, “The new guidelines were created after extensive consultation with many partners- both from industry, as well as civil society organisations, including the Unstereotype Alliance and UNICEF. These guidelines are a big step forward in strengthening ASCI’s agenda to shape a more responsible and progressive narrative. We are grateful to the government and Shrimati Smriti Irani for supporting these guidelines, and to the many partners who have been with us on this journey.”

Mumbai, India – The advertising regulatory body, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), has updated its code to add greater inclusivity in advertising depictions, including new areas of possible discrimination or derision, such as gender identity and sexual orientation, body shape, age, and physical and mental conditions.

The new areas of the ASCI code, in addition to race, caste, creed, gender or nationality, will now be considered violations if an advertisement tries to mock or deride anyone on these bases. These changes to the ASCI code were approved by the board recently.

Talking about the changes, Manisha Kapoor, ASCI’s CEO and secretary-general, shared that they have seen consumers call out ads that mock or deride people, or portray them in unfavourable ways, and it is only fitting that advertising becomes more inclusive and sensitive to this.

“It is not acceptable for example, to associate characteristics such as sluggishness with a certain body shape. Similarly, to deride someone with a physical or mental ailment, or their gender identity would now violate the ASCI code. With this change, ASCI hopes to ensure that advertising becomes more inclusive and sensitised to all sections of our country, and does not perpetuate certain portrayals that have no place in a progressive society,” said Kapoor.