ASCI tells bad 'uns to watch out

Purvita Chatterjee

Over the years, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has gained the reputation of being a `toothless' organisation. Today it intends driving home the message that it is the common man who can actually make a difference to its status by writing to it about any objectionable or false ads. Building up public confidence in advertising is what it intends exercising and hopefully the body will get its `teeth' into the matter this time around through its first campaign.

As a result of its campaign targeted at consumers, ASCI is expecting to get more consumer complaints than intra-industry complaints from companies trying to settle scores with each other. It is the consumer who is expected to react to bring about a more objective and rational reaction to all such misleading and false ads.

Today ASCI expects to tilt the balance of complaints more towards the consumer than individual companies. States Sam Balsara, Chairman, ASCI, ``We expect nearly 90 per cent of the complaints to come from the consumer.'' Now there exists a 50:50 ratio between the complaints received from consumers and companies. Overall complaints average about 150 annually.

As Balsara says, ``Today advertisers are being forced to cross the line to persuade the consumer to try his products at the expense of the truth and nothing but the truth.'' Whether it is Hindustan Lever trying to say its Wheel brand of detergent contains real lime when it uses the lime fragrance or Godrej making claims of fairness within a specific timeframe for its Fairglow brand of soaps, ASCI says it's time it got more active about false claims and promises such ads display. It has literally decided to treat the consumer like a `king' and take care of all complaints filed.

But whether a campaign can actually make a difference and tilt the balance in favour of more consumer complaints will depend on what it can do to make the public react to ads like responsible citizens and actually take the trouble to write to ASCI regarding objectionable ads.

There seems to be some good news already. In the past few weeks since the campaign was launched, ASCI has already received 75 complaints against various television and print advertisements. According to ASCI officials, about one-third of the total complaints are against TV commercials and the rest from the print media. These range from a condom ad to non-fulfillment of the free gifts offered by a magazine.

In its latest communication, a new tagline has been conceived whereby the body calls itself the `watchdog of the Indian advertising industry'. ASCI has roped in Priya Tendulkar (who already has the image of a social activist since her Rajni serial days) to convey the message - `Jhoot bole, ASCI kate' in its first ever TVC created by the Mumbai-based ad agency Madison Creative.

In the TVC, actress Priya Tendulkar urges the public to write to ASCI since advertisements can sometimes be misleading and fool people.

With the degree of `objectionable' ads on the rise, ASCI has decided to make its presence felt through both a TVC and a print campaign. Attributing the increase in false ads to advances in technology, which has led to companies launching products of parity, criticising or bringing out differences with competition has been on the rise through various ads in the media.

Citing almost similar reasons as Balsara for the drop in complaints in recent times, M. G. Parmeswaran, Executive Director, FCB Ulka, says, ``Today the number of complaints has been going down. With so much competition every company is trying to blow up the differences with its competitor. Each company is trying to stretch the truth to prove a point. It is time they were made conscious of ASCI and its strictures.''

Considering advertising has not become more honest over the years, it is surprising that the complaints are coming down. The campaign is possibly an attempt to stop this trend and make consumers aware of their right to protest.

Parmeswaran adds, ``The only negative fallout of the campaign may be that the public is likely to watch ads more closely and get too critical while the positive rub-off will obviously be that the consumers' voice will get heard. Advertisers will become more conscious now rather than be cautious.''

However, there have been no changes made in the functioning of ASCI. Its Board of Governors will continue to appoint a Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) to examine complaints received by the council. The CCC will comprise a mix of individuals from the advertising industry and society at large. Advertisers will be given 15 days to respond to any complaint received by the council and within a period of 7-8 weeks ASCI would come up with a verdict if the complaint is not heard by the agency and its client. When a complaint is upheld by the CCC, the advertiser is expected to either withdraw or modify the ad. This, of course, is much quicker than the long-drawn out court proceedings.

ASCI is luckily getting the support of media companies which have agreed to carry its ads free of cost. Star, Zee and Sony are already offering free airtime while Doordarshan is being approached to do the same. Besides, Madison Creative has developed the campaign free of charge for ASCI.

The watchdog of the advertising industry is also using the influence of its media members to ensure that all such `objectionable' advertising is not carried. As Balsara says, ``We have already informed our media members to subscribe to the ASCI code and refrain from carrying these ads in their respective channels/newspapers.''

Considering agencies and corporates are themselves members of the ASCI board, a certain degree of self-regulation has already been built into the system. Ramesh Narayan, President, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), says, ``Since the members themselves are part of the industry, they would be in a position to feel the pulse of the public once they make their complaints heard. Although it is a step in the right direction, excessive complaints should not result in ineffective handling of these cases.''

But more than getting the public to sit up and take notice of ads, the purpose of the campaign is also to inform the Government about the purpose and functions of ASCI. As Bharat V. Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Healthcare Ltd, who is on the Board of Governors, ASCI, says,``The function of the campaign is two-fold. Apart from informing consumers, it is also telling opinion leaders and Government officials that there exists a self-regulatory body in this industry.''

The ASCI Code

1. To ensure the truthfulness and honesty of representations and claims made by advertisements and to safeguard against misleading advertisements.

2. To ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of public decency.

3. To safeguard against the indiscriminate use of advertising for the promotion of products which are regarded as hazardous to society or to individuals to a degree of a type which is unacceptable to society at large.

4. To ensure that advertisements observe fairness in competition so that the consumer's need to be informed of choices in the marketplace and the canons of generally accepted competitive behaviour in business are both served.

Picture: Sam Balsara, Chairman, Advertising Standards Council of India.