The Advertising Standards Council of India, a voluntary self-regulatory organization that keeps a check on misleading advertising has been doing its best to protect the interests of consumers. It promotes self-regulation and over the years has been led by veterans.
Rohit Gupta, Chairman of ASCI and a veteran television professional has listed his 5 most important points of Focus in 2020 for ASCI.
Consumer Awareness
The first point of Focus in 2020 and an on priority for ASCI will be to further increase consumer awareness. Last year, our total consumer complaints went up by 30 percent and we would like to continue this momentum. The idea is to reach out to a larger number of consumers, as more and more people become aware of the work we do, the better we can serve them.
Focus on Digital Media
We already have a very strong process on traditional media.In 2020, we will be focusing on digital side in a big way. We are working together to bring a strong digital process and you will hear an announcement soon sometime next year.
Liaison with the Government
Over the years ASCI’s work has been recognised by the government, judiciary and regulators. Its efforts are constantly documented during Parliament sessions. We need to continue to work with the Government to bring more reforms like the awareness scroll that is playing on TV channels, which was a big win for us. Similarly, as you are aware that the new Consumer Protection bill with new guidelines (including use of celebrities in advertising) is getting formalised and ASCI needs to be a key stakeholder in ensuring the smooth implementation of the same.
Industry Awareness
We would like to continue to build awareness about self-regulation within the industry, and we will continue to run campaigns to bring more and more people from industry on board.
Focus on Education and Healthcare
We will also continue to promote some important areas where we feel there is a critical need to control misleading advertising. Our special focus is going to be on education and healthcare sectors, which continue to generate a lot of misleading advertising.
Our efforts will be two pronged, firstly, we would like to make consumers more aware of the extent of misleading advertising in these two categories, and secondly through introduction of new guidelines; we can provide advertisers better guidance to market responsibly.
