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Business News/ Industry / Advertising/  Digital media is ASCI’s biggest challenge, says Narendra Ambwani
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Digital media is ASCI’s biggest challenge, says Narendra Ambwani

ASCI chairman Ambwani says that while advertising is all about creativity, it should also protect the interests of the consumers

A file photo of ASCI chairman Narendra Ambwani.Premium
A file photo of ASCI chairman Narendra Ambwani.

On 18 March, the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) will launch a web portal called Grievances against Misleading Advertisements, or GAMA, a joint initiative to deal with public complaints against ads. Narendra Ambwani, chairman of ASCI, the non-profit organization for self-regulation in advertising, believes that while advertising is all about creativity, it should also protect the interests of the consumers. Ambwani spoke of working towards a more robust approach to curb misleading advertisements, the challenge to be seen as a fair player and ASCI’s plans for 2015. Edited excerpts:

What can we expect from ASCI this year?

We’ve chalked out some key focus areas for this year. For starters, we will continue to improve our engagement with advertising agencies and persuade them to learn more about ASCI’s guidelines. Quite often, brands are made to modify advertisements that may showcase wrong information or unsafe practices, which costs double the time and money. We want to be able to reduce that to a large extent.

We’re also working towards making our access to consumers better and are in the process of launching a mobile app shortly to aid the process of making complaints about misleading ads. The primary focus continues to be towards our key stakeholders—consumers who are exposed to advertising across mediums like television and print.

In addition, we are increasing engagement with government authorities and are looking at ways that will help protect consumer interest without coming in the way of creativity.

How are you stepping up the efforts to curb misleading advertising?

We’ve tried to make the process of registering complaints much easier over the last couple of years. For instance, we’ve set up our own web portal for this purpose. Consumers can also use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to us or make these complaints. Consumers are provided with a tracking number and will be kept informed on the status of their complaint over SMS. We’re expecting a fair increase in the number of complaints that are registered with us.

Up until three years ago, we would witness around 200 complaints in a year. Today, we are dealing with over 100 complaints per month. In addition, we have what we call an online programme for marketers and agencies that cite various guidelines and practices.

How proactive is the government with regard to these initiatives?

What we had noticed was that a number of consumers would write in to the ministry of information and broadcasting with their complaints. Not many had heard of ASCI. Starting 18 March 2015, the Department of Consumer Affairs, along with ASCI is launching a web portal called Grievances against Misleading Advertisements. We will be working as an executive arm, wherein all complaints will first be forwarded to us and analysed by our team. We’ve already got an existing system in place for this. In essence, this portal will work as a funnel and will offer consumers more avenues to reach out with their grievances against misleading ads.

What about the challenges for ASCI?

One of the biggest challenges for us perhaps is the emergence of new media. At the moment, there aren’t any clear guidelines for the digital platform. We are using the same set of guidelines that apply to print and television. It’s very difficult to monitor what’s happening on this medium. The online audience is also very different from your mainstream medium. Another big challenge is to be seen as a fair player among all our stakeholders—consumer activists, advertisers and media agencies.

Do advertisers comply and modify their ads if the need arises?

It is a cumbersome process for advertisers in particular. However, we have witnessed an over 90% compliance rate when it comes to modifying the ads. What would earlier take 45-60 days to get modified, now occurs in a period of 12 days or so.

How important is self-regulation in your view?

It’s a big debate currently. Creativity is good, but it also requires freedom. While on the other hand, regulation implies control. It’s a real challenge. Is it better to work with a set of boundaries? Should we be sensitive to upsetting people’s sentiments, and if so, where do you draw the line? If there aren’t any regulations or guidelines, society won’t function as efficiently. I do believe that having in place some set of guidelines for creativity is always desirable.

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Published: 17 Mar 2015, 08:10 PM IST
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