Indiantelevision.com Team

(4 January 2008 10:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has joined forces with the European Advertising Standard Alliance (EASA), the only international self-regulation organisation (SRO) in advertising.

In a conference in Mumbai, ASCI, EASA and officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting discussed the need of self-regulation and co-regulation in advertising in India. The hot topic of the session remained the concern on the content and treatment of adverts.

In his welcome note, ASCI chairman Bhaskar Das noted, "Advertising plays an important role in spreading awareness and knowledge among consumers and also in educating them; but it should be honest, truthful and maintain trust."

Taking the discussion further, ASCI ex-chairman and Procter & Gamble India chairman Bharat V Patel described the role of ASCI in self-regulation of advertisements, the challenges the ad world has to face, and recommended mandatory membership of ASCI for advertisers and advertising agencies.

"We have a consumer complaint council (CCC) consisting of 12 members of the civil society from different walks of life and nine from the advertising fraternity. Out of 2011 complaints, 1089 have been upheld and 846 complied with 78 per cent of success rate," said Patel.

Patel also stated that the challenges before ASCI have been caused by the fast growth of the ad world, regulatory interventions low membership and unawareness among general masses. "Though ASCI code has been made essential for Cable TV Act, it is yet to be adopted by Press Council of India," added Patel.

The EASA chairman Jean-Pierre Teyssier further emphasised the need for self-regulation. In his presentation he said, "Self-regulation and co-regulation is more important than legislation."

EASA, formed in 1992, is now having support of 32 SROs from 30 countries, including 26 from Europe and Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry additional secretary Uday Kumar Verma, who was also in the conference to present the government's prospective, said, "There are two sets of people in the society: while one of them wants no government intervention, the other set favours 100 per cent government control." Verma indicated the reason for growing concern as emergence of new channels and media.

In 2007, 120 million people have access to television with at least half of them with cable or DTH connection; 110 million are radio or FM channel listeners. As most of them are not big city based and not so educated, they are likely to be influenced by misleading advertising that strengthens the need for SROs.

In his final note, Verma added, "Competition and consumers both have to be taken care of in self-regulation as it signifies maturity and entails a big responsibility."