ASCI ads to go on air shortly  ( June '13,2001, HBL)

THE Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the advertising industry's self-regulatory body, plans to shortly air its own TV commercials to ``advertise itself as well as spread the message about its role in the industry'' to the public at large. Speaking to Business Line, Mr. Sam Balsara, Chairman, ASCI, said that the ads will be made with celebrities who support consumer causes, and who will spout ASCI's messages. The ads are expected to go on air in a couple of months.

Mr Balsara, who was in Chennai to deliver the keynote address at a convention organised by the Consumers Association of India on `advertising, sales promotions and consumers', said that ASCI has advertised itself in the past in print but now has felt the need to reinforce the message about its role. Through this campaign, it expects more people will be able to communicate to ASCI on untruthful or indecent advertising. Two films will be made initially, which Mr Balsara hopes will be made by the members of ASCI at no charge as well as be aired by the channels. One of the ads will be on truthful advertising and the other on decency in ads.

Mr Balsara said that the past year has seen at least 150 complaints lodged with ASCI, of which 50 per cent were intra-industry complaints and the rest were from other sections of society. He noted that the former was on the rise and was a sign of the times where corporate warfare induced companies to take complaints to ASCI. Fifty per cent of complaints, he said, are being upheld, and of this, ASCI has had 80 per cent compliance. There are the stray cases where advertisers would not withdraw or modify ads on ASCI's advice and it has had to write to the media concerned to withdraw the ads.

Among the major changes that have been introduced in ASCI in the past few months, Mr Balsara said, was in the procedure in informing both complainant and advertiser simultaneously when a complaint was upheld. Mr Balsara said that what had been happening was that in case a complaint was upheld, the complainant went to town about it, irking the rival party even before it had a chance to modify or withdraw the ad concerned. So, now the advertiser is informed first so that he had time to modify the ad while the complainant is informed only two weeks hence. Also, now, instead of only excerpting the complainant's letter while sending the complaint to the advertiser, now all the material is sent to the advertiser, masking the complainant's name.

Mr Balsara said that ASCI's consumer complaints council now had recourse to consult experts in different fields whenver an ad needed expert opinion on a technical point. For example, it has a consultant on surfactants as well as on ayurveda, especially now that several products claiming ayurvedic origins are surfacing.

The ASCI Chairman said that several ad agencies were approaching ASCI to pre-vet their ads before release so as to avoid controversies later. However, Mr Balsara said this was an impossible task because of the sheer numbers involved and it would not take it up.