ASCI’S WORD, ADVERTISING LAW NOW- FINAL REPORT

It’s a dream come true for the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) that has been seeking legal recognition for the role it plays in regulating advertising in the country. A notification from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has passed an amendment in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act that now formally gives the ASCI the legal right to decide whether an advertisement is fair to be aired or not on television.

The amendment reads: “No advertisement which violates the Code for self-regulation in advertising, as adopted by the ASCI, Mumbai for public exhibition in India, from time to time, shall be carried in the cable service.”

As first reported in Hindustan Times, ASCI had been asking for recognition of role. It proved with data its effectiveness in getting compliance from its members and wanted legislative powers to be able to enforce rules in cases of errant behaviour.
Says Ram Poddar, chairman, ASCI, "This has been a long standing request of ASCI and this ruling will help to make the advertising self-regulatory movement in India stronger and more effective."

The new-found powers place ASCI on par with its counterparts in the U.S., U.K. and EU that have powers to penalize a non-compliant offender. ASCI has now sought the support of the concerned associations such as Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to persuade the TV channels to adhere to ASCI's Code as well as implement the decisions of its CCC in this regard.
A voluntary and non-profit organization, ASCI was set up by a group of advertisers, advertising agencies, media etc., in 1985, with the objective of ensuring that all advertising should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. All public complaints that come to ASCI are evaluated by its independent Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) that has 21 members,12 from civil society and nine from advertising practitioners.
“Advertising issues need such a body as no statutory regulation can legislate on the soft issues that come up in assessing advertising that is the product of strategic and creative inputs of a large number of people from the agency and the advertiser”, says Bharat Patel, chairman P&G.

ADVERTISING COURTS - NEWS BREAK

Gimme more. That’s what the Advertising Standards Council of India is asking of the central government. What it wants is the status of an “advertising court” where it will have legislative powers. And with the ministries of Information and Broadcasting and Consumer Affairs behind it all the way, this will probably be a matter of just some time.

As it stands, the ASCI is a self regulatory, ad industry body. It has 240 members that account for two-thirds of all the advertising done in India. Any complaint against an ad being offensive or making false claims is processed. If upheld, the advertiser is asked to withdraw or make amends. While advertisers are not obliged to comply, so far, of the 1011 complaints upheld, 785 have.

The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a consumer body recently used an ASCI ruling to get a favourable ruling in a consumer court against UB McDowell’s no 1. This indicates the status that ASCI enjoys. On its part, it upholds its lack of bias and ensures objectivity by having the biggest lot of members on its complaint adjudication board from civil society as compared to any other self-regulatory body (SRO) like the bar, medical or press council.

“Advertising issues need such a body as no statutory regulation can legislate on the soft issues that come up in assessing advertising that is the product of strategic and creative inputs of a large number of people from the agency and the advertiser”, says Bharat Patel, chairman P&G.

In India, there are three legal routes for the consumer: the consumer court for product and service related complaints, the common court and the MRTP court for marketers. It is also felt world over that no judicial system could cope with the issues arising in the matter of administering or regulating advertising. If so, it would simply delay justice by when the particular ad campaign may be over. An ASCI complaint is typically handled within six to eight weeks.

This is why SROs in the developed countries have legislative powers. In many countries, media and marketing companies have to be members and their advertising can be penalized. Non-compliance can mean referral to a higher, governmental body.

Now ASCI is asking for similar legislative powers on the line of the US-UK-EU model so that it has the claws to penalize a non-compliant offender. It suggests pre-vetting of ads for products or service categories that can cause serious health or financial loss like lotteries, liquor and tobacco.

Such an additional power will bring the Indian system on track with international trends and the consumer can rest assured that his genuine complaint will definitely have to be addressed. And that would be a cause worth advertising about.

(These articles appeared in the business section of Hindustan Times in July `06)