Ad Campaigns
ASCI clarifies on recent news report about Self Declaration Certificate
Mumbai: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has emphasized that broadcasters and advertisers must obtain a self-declaration certificate (SDC) before releasing any new advertisements. Starting from 18 June, all new ads can only be aired if they have the SDC, as required by the Supreme Court and notified by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).
The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) have collectively requested that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) delay the implementation of the SDC mandate to allow the industry sufficient time to comply with the new regulatory requirements.
In a letter to the MIB, the INS suggested that the SDC mechanism should be restricted to medical advertisements since the SC case specifically addresses misleading medical ads. Advertisers will be required to generate SDCs via the Broadcast Seva portal for TV and radio ads and through the Press Council of India (PCI) portal for print and digital ads.
The ISA has also called for a postponement of the SDC mechanism, citing concerns over asset confidentiality as ad materials uploaded on the Broadcast Seva and PCI websites will be publicly accessible. Additionally, both websites frequently experience technical issues, potentially causing delays in generating the SDCs.
Despite these concerns, the MIB reiterated during a stakeholder meeting on 11 June that the SDC mandate for all new advertisements across TV, digital, print, and radio will come into effect on 18 June, in accordance with the Supreme Court directive.
ASCI has requested its members to report any difficulties they encounter in implementing the SDC mandate, so it can compile these issues and present them to the MIB for further consideration.
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
