They’re ad it again!

The Republic of Hurt Sentiments is familiar territory for Indian film-makers, as seen in several examples old and new. There was Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam , which was banned in Tamil Nadu for ‘hurting’ Muslim sentiments; earlier, Madhuri Dixit’s Aaja Nach Le came under fire from Mayawati for ‘insulting’ Dalits; and Shah Rukh Khan’s Billu , which started off as Billu Barber , had its name changed because — you guessed it - the barber community’s sentiments were hurt! However, movies are larger than life in this country, and, one could argue, attract more than warranted attention.

But what about those itsy-bitsy commercials that flash across screens for just seconds?

Turns out we can get pretty outraged by those as well. Whether it’s the uproar over the controversial Ford scam ads (which claimed the head of one of India’s top creative professionals), or outrage over ads for a vaginal whitener, or the storm over sexist undertones in some of the men’s deodorant and briefs ads, it turns out Indians take their advertisements seriously.

Too sensitive?

While some believe we are becoming too sensitive and that creative agencies are under pressure, others believe ad agencies have to become more responsible. Is the pressure to cut through the clutter of advertisements forcing ad agencies to cross the line between bold and outrageous?

Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World, says, “I think it is broadly correct that advertising agencies are under pressure to create advertisements that appeal to the consumers and get noticed by the target audience. But having said that, I think ad agencies are aware they need to follow a code of conduct, and the Advertising Standards Council of India has become super active.”

At the same time, it does not take much these days to make a mountain out of a molehill. Share it on Facebook, or tweet about it, and — if you have a large number of active followers — it will spread like wildfire.

When asked if we have become too sensitive, Balsara says, “Advertisements reflect the society. Ads, after all, cannot reflect the times of the ‘70s and ‘80s. It appears consumers are becoming less tolerant.” He said there are a growing number of activists who take offence at every little thing, but added that, to be fair to them, it is their job.

Another reason as to why so many people are getting upset by ads: More people are watching them. According to the Advertising Standards Council of India’s (ASCI) website, television channels in India played 1.04 billion seconds of advertisements in 2012 (Source: Map). The average adult Indian watches television for 108 minutes a day (Source: IRS in 18yrs+ All India). Correspondingly, the number of complaints have risen too. Call it better monitoring, higher levels of consumer awareness, or a case of more misleading or outrageous ads being made, the number of complaints landing on ASCI’s desk has shot up over the past five years.

Alan Colaco, Secretary General, ASCI, said that with the setting up of the National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), nearly 1,500 TV commercials and 45,000 print advertisements are monitored in a month, and nearly five lakh ads are monitored over a year. “In the past five years, consumer awareness has grown, and from just about a little over a hundred complaints it has grown to about 3,000 complaints last year. In January, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of ASCI upheld the highest ever number of complaints against nearly 99 out of 108 advertisements,” Colaco said. He added that the ad watchdog took suo motu cognisance of a large number of ads due to better monitoring systems.

In April, ASCI introduced a provision of “Suspension Pending Investigation” under which, if an advertisement is seen to be gravely obscene, indecent, vulgar or against public interest, it will now be required to be withdrawn immediately till the Consumer Complaint Council makes a decision.

Srinivasan K. Swamy, Chairman and Managing Director, RK Swamy BBDO, and President, Indian Advertising Association (India Chapter), however, believes that nearly 99.9 per cent of the work done by agencies is always within acceptable norms of decency. “It is possible that in the rarest of rare cases, there could be wrong judgement call on what constitutes decency or indecency. There is no pressure on agencies to come up with controversial ads. However, all work should be persuasive, differentiated and connect with the consumers,” he said. He added that one seems to attach more importance to social media and the influence it may have on how the agencies function. “Honestly the outrage you are referring to is not felt by the industry at all,” he said.

Increasing awareness

Of course, the advertising industry is quick to point other cases of ‘voluntary action’. For instance, after voices against commodification of women in advertisements gained ground, with the growing number of rape incidents, IAA’s India Chapter started a gender sensitisation drive.

“The seminar conducted by IAA recently in Mumbai was to sensitise the entire content industry — TV, feature films, story writers and advertising agencies — on how they unwittingly typify women in media and how by being conscious, they can portray them as intelligent, equal participants in society. We are also embarking on a multimedia campaign in the next few weeks against ‘street sexual harassment’, commonly known as ‘eve teasing’. This will open the eyes of many to how women are sometimes tormented, and hopefully some attitudinal change will come about, particularly in the lower strata of our society,” said Swamy.

At the same time, the pressure is high on ad agencies. Brand expert Harish Bijoor said that after the Ford ad blooper, there are a lot of checks and balances being put in place in the advertising industry, so much so that ideas are vetted even before being put on a story board.

The advertising industry is also looking to find solutions to tackle the challenges of scam ads. At the Goa-Fest, scam ads and client-agency relationships took centre stage in discussions.

Pointing to the Ford ad controversy, Santosh Desai, MD and CEO of Future Brands, said that it was only due to leaking of a scam ad that was not meant to be released formally that the issue blew up. “Scam ads are not what marketers spend their big bucks on,” he insists.

Asked about how the industry plans to tackle the problem of scam ads, Arvind Sharma, President of the Advertising Agencies of India, said that the industry “will sit together and discuss over the next couple of months and will take a collective view”.

Bijoor, on the other hand, said the industry needs to have awards that are determined by the consumer, or a consumer body, rather than members of the advertising industry alone. Moreover, he added, agencies should have zero tolerance for scam ads.

Meanwhile an interesting invite has landed in journalists’ email boxes — to attend a discussion by IAA on whether “Creative awards can also be given for differentiated one-off expressions”, to be held at Gurgaon next week.

Food for thought for ad agencies?

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