In a move aimed at checking misleading advertising, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has tied up with TAM Media Research to monitor those on print and television.
This is expected to help ASCI act on misleading claims by advertisers as quickly as possible, an area where the regulatory body has been weak.
Basically, a newly created National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS) will check approximately 350 television and a little over 10,000 print ads released each week for compliance with ASCI’s code on unsubstantiated, misleading or false claims. NAMS would become operational from May 1, said Bharat Patel, chairman of the India Society of Advertisers and head of the marketing committee of ASCI. “The endeavour is to fast-track the redressal system by pro-actively talking to advertisers who indulge in misleading advertising,” he says.
Prior to this, ASCI relied on intra-industry or consumer complaints to rein misleading ads. This led to “delayed action”, where solutions were offered well after the ad had run its course.
The attempt to address misleading ads comes after the consumer affairs ministry was given directions by the Prime Minister’s Office to check such advertising, to safeguard the interest of consumers. In the past six months, the ministry has been working with ASCI on the issue. Patel admits the NAMS move comes after intervention by the ministry on the issue. “The idea was there but, yes, we speeded the process in launching NAMS,” he says.
He added ASCI was thinking of migrating to a daily rather than a weekly reporting cycle in about six to eight months. “We will be able to address the problem of misleading ads on a real-time basis,” he says.
“This is a welcome move,” says A Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. “This will result in speedy redressal of issues but I hope the monitoring is impartial and does not impinge on creative freedom.”
Asks Sunil Duggal, chief executive officer, Dabur India: “How do you ensure there is impartiality? What is the yardstick to ensure this is unbiased?”
Patel responds by pointing to TAM’s wherewithal in monitoring ads on a daily basis. “They already run the TAM AdEX service, which monitors advertising expenditure on print, TV and radio. NAMS will go a step beyond looking at ads that violate the ASCI Code,” he says.
