ASCI to revamp advisory services for brands and celebs

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) plans to revamp its advertising advisory services for companies to be able to due diligence on technical claims at the pre-production stage of ads.

This is part of the self-regulatory industry body’ strategy to broaden its efforts in helping industry stakeholders as well as celebrities in becoming compliant with its codes and to create responsible advertising.

Subhash Kamath, Chairman, ASCI said, “We are overhauling the ASCI’s advertising advisory services and it will become a much bigger proposition. We are expanding the infrastructure that will support the advisory services. This is independent of the Consumer Complaints Council. We believe this will provide the necessary thought leadership, provocations and support to the advertising ecosystem to create more responsible advertising while balancing creativity.”

Also read: To prevent misleading claims by food companies, ASCI inks pact with FSSAI

“With more and more companies making technical claims, we are also expanding the advisory services team and it will include technical experts to help companies evaluate these claims at the pre-production stage,” he added. This comes at at time when the implementation of the new Consumer Protection Act as made celebrities more accountable in terms of claims made by the brands they endorse.

Research-based insights

Kamath pointed out that the ASCI will look at providing research-based insights to industry stakeholders. “We have already embarked on the GenderNext study which will provide actionable insights to brands on gender depiction in advertisements. We have always been at the forefront of being, the conscience keeper of the industry. We are now ramping up efforts to protect consumer interest as well as add more value to our members to help them navigate and understand the guidelines,” he added.

In the past few months, the self-regulatory body has released new guidelines around Covid-claims, online real money gaming and more recently implemented the influencer guidelines. It has now unveiled a new brand identity to, “to reflect the agenda of becoming future-facing and more inclusive,” it added.

Also read: How will the ASCI guidelines for social media influencers impact the brands relying on the online stars for their advertising needs?

Meanwhile, ASCI is also looking at revamping its complaints management platform to enable a smoother interaction between consumers, industry and other stakeholders.

Manisha Kapoor, Secretary General, ASCI said, “We are investing heavily on technology. We are looking to revamp our complaint management system to make it more intuitive, faster, nimble and seamless. At the same time, going forward, using technology tools, machine learning and AI systems to track and measure advertising content real time is going to be a critical part of ASCI.”

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