Moves on to build public confidence in advertising

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, AUG. 16. The Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI) in an effort to build public confidence in advertising and ensure that no advertiser gets away with dishonest, indecent or misleading advertisement, has unveiled a public confidence- building campaign featuring noted consumer activist and television personality, Ms. Priya Tendulkar.

A 30-seconds TV commercial will urge consumers to complain to ASCI if they come across a dishonest, indecent or misleading advertisement. The campaign on television is being released to increase awareness about ASCI among consumers at large, because in the recent past complaints from consumers had come down, whereas intra-industry complaints had increased.

Sharing the television commercial with the members of media here today, Mr. Sam Balsara, Chairman, ASCI said, ``one of the constant complaints I hear from consumers, consumer bodies and activists alike is that ASCI is only there to settle intra- industry disputes and it does not make any effort to educate genuine consumers about the redressal set up available to them. This campaign should go a long way to build public confidence in advertising and demonstrate to consumers at large that the advertising community is a responsible lot and does not want any advertiser to get away with dishonest, indecent or misleading advertising which may be created either consciously or inadvertently.''

The ASCI Board of Governors evaluated various proposals before finalising the current script using Ms. Priya Tendulkar. Given the image of Ms. Tendulkar, as a consumer activist starting with her programme Rajni in the late 1980s to the current Jimmedar Kaun, the ASCI Board felt that she was the right spokesperson for ASCI, whom consumers could relate to.

The campaign is expected to run on all Hindi television channels starting August 24, 2001. Regional channels will also be supplied with language versions by the middle of September.

Mr. Balsara also informed that a press campaign has already been launched and leading publications all over the country are already carrying these ads, free of cost as a service to their readers.

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