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The Board of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Thursday re-elected Subhash Kamath for a second consecutive term as the Chairman. Over the past year, he has been spearheading ASCI’s various key initiatives, and the board’s decision is expected to ensure continuity for strengthening these measures further.
The industry veteran is the CEO of BBH and Publicis Worldwide, India.
The various initiatives taken by the self-regulatory body include guidelines for social media influencers for labelling promotional content and the display of clear disclaimers for real-money gaming ads. It also issued an advisory for the industry on Covid-related claims in their ads. It also tied up with French digital service provider Reech to use artificial intelligence to monitor paid marketing communication by influencers and brands. Recently, the body also unveiled the first of its kind study that deep-dived into the issues of representation of women in advertising and offered tools to screen their ad content in this regard.
“We have flagged off important initiatives to protect consumer interest as well as guide the industry stakeholders. There has been a strong focus to ensure ASCI becomes future-ready at a time when the media and marketing landscape is fast-evolving. We will focus on creating more outreach for these initiatives and also continue to focus on consumer, industry and student education and thought leadership initiatives through collaborations,” Kamath said.
He said that ASCI would continue to focus on emerging areas in the coming months, especially on the social and digital front. “We have also been working and investing on digital transformation of the complaints management system. Once unveiled, it will enable a smoother interaction between consumers, industry and other stakeholders of ASCI,” he added.
ASCI also recently launched an “Advertising Advice” service for brands. Kamath said this service would help them ensure they do not violate any norms and create more responsible advertising without affecting creativity.
The self-regulatory body also revised guidelines for brand extension of liquor and tobacco advertising. It has also been working collaboratively with various authorities such as Ayush Ministry to flag potentially misleading ads regarding Covid-related claims.
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