Advertising Standards Council of India

Established: 1985
President: Mr. Subhash Kamath
Secretary General: Manisha Kapoor

The Advertisement Standards Council of India (hereinafter, “ASCI”)

was established in the year 1985 under Section 25 of the Companies
Act, 1956. It has been defined as a “voluntary, self-regulatory
council” which has been registered as a non-profit company. The
view with which the ASCI was formed that all the advertising
activities in India must be legal, truthful, decent, honest, with a sense
of social responsibility and in line with fair competitive conditions. 

Structure of the ASCI

The ASCI team consists of a Board of Governors, members of the

Consumer Complaints Council and a Secretariat. The Board of the
ASCI consists of a governor and 16 members, which comprise of
members of reputable firms including media agencies, advertisers and
other individuals involved with the advertising business. The
members of the Consumer Complaints Council are discussed in detail
subsequently in the article. The Secretariat consists of 5 members and
is headed by the Secretary General. 

It is important to note that the ASCI is not a government body and is

not responsible for formulating rules for the general public. The ASCI
has adopted a self-regulating code, in its commitment to further the
interests of the consumers. The ASCI also invites complaints from
consumers against any such unfair, untruthful and false claims and
advertisements; all of such complaints are examined independently by
the Consumer Complaints Council. 
In the year 2016, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting cast a
mandate on all commercials and advertisements to follow the ASCI
Code. 

Objectives of the ASCI

The ultimate mission of the ASCI is to promote truthfulness, honesty,

public decency, societal standards and to oppose hazardous products.
The objectives of the ASCI include to “monitor, manage and
promote” standards with respect to advertising practices in the
country, with a view to ensure the following:

1. That advertising claims are presented with truthfulness and

honesty, and that no misleading and false claims are made.
2. That the advertisements are not made and presented in a
manner which is offensive to the general public in India, and
that the standards of public agency are followed.
3. That no advertisement is made in respect of products or
services regarded as hazardous or unacceptable to individuals
or to the society.
4. That no unfair means are used by anyone player in the
market, and that advertisements are made in a competitive
manner.
The ASCI also has been established in order to codify, modify and
adopt a code for fair advertisement, and that such code is modified
from time-to-time. 

Another objective includes to provide for a Consumer Complaints

Council to entertain claims against advertisements in violation of the
set standards and practices.
The Consumer Complaints Council

The Consumer Complaints Council is the body responsible for

examining and investigating complaints from consumers and the
public at large in relation to any contravention of the Code of Conduct
of the News Broadcasting Associations and advertisement ethics. It
also makes recommendations as to actions to be taken against such
contravention.

The members of the Consumer Complaints Council are appointed by

the Board of Governors. There are 21 members of which 12 are
appointed from the civil society and 9 from professional advertisers.
Usually, complaints are decided within 4 to 6 weeks. 

In case no reply is received from the advertiser, the Consumer

Complaints Council can pass an ex-parte decision, and can ask the
wrongdoer-advertiser to modify or even to remove the false and
misleading advertisement. 

Procedure for Filing a Complaint

A complaint received by the ASCI may be of any of the three types;
the first being complaints by the public at large which may include
complaints by the government. The second type being suo motu
complaints from the members of the Board of Governors of ASCI or
the Consumer Complaints Council. The last type includes complaints
by the advertisers.

Complaints to the ASCI can be made through any of the following

means:

 A letter directed to the Secretary General of ASCI.

 Official email of ASCI.
 Registering a complaint online on the website of ASCI.
  Phone call.
All the complaints received are ultimately dealt with by the Consumer
Complaints Committee. When a complaint is received, the Secretary
General shall acknowledge it and ask for complaints from the
advertiser against whom the complaint has been filed. The parties
involved shall be allowed to present their case, and a decision shall be
taken within a period of 4-6 weeks. If the Committee finds that the
advertisement is violative of the guidelines, it shall inform the same to
the parties within 5 days. The advertiser shall be given a period of 2
weeks to make the necessary changes, failing which the ASCI will
publish the advertisement in its quarterly release which is circulated
pan-India.

False and Misleading Advertisements

Anti-trust or competition law in India has provisions to protect the
consumers against “unfair trade practices”. The Competition Act,
2002 prohibits the making of any representation to the public which is
false or misleading in a “material respect”. An unfair trade practice
means the practice of promoting sale, use or supply of any goods or
services in a manner that involves an “unfair method” or “unfair
deceptive practice”.

Rule 7(9) of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 provides that
“No advertisement which violates the standards of practice for
advertising agencies as approved by the Advertising Agencies
Association of India, Bombay, from time to time, shall be carried in
the cable service.”

Generally speaking, there can be said to be two categories of

misleading advertisements. The first kind pertains to the violation of
the consumer’s right to information and to choice. Such
advertisements relate to non-health issues that can cause mental agony
and, or financial loss to the consumer. For instance, shampoo
advertisements creating false sense of silkiness of hair, or ads for
vehicles making false claims of mileage etc. The second kind of
misleading advertisements include health and nutrition related claims,
and they are a violation of the right to safety of the consumer and can
cause prejudice to the health of consumers. Examples include
medicines falsely claiming to cure certain ailments etc. 

Recent controversies regarding Misleading Advertisements

Recently, during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there have

been a number of instances where advertisers have received criticism
over false advertisements promising to offer enhanced protection
against the coronavirus. Some of such cases have been discussed here:

The “Anti-Corona Mattress” Case

A private company, Arihant Mattresses, faced backlash against its

advertisements for an “anti-corona mattress” in a Gujrati newspaper.
An FIR was filed against the company for making statements which
amounted to public mischief under the Indian Penal Code, as well as
under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements)
Act, 1954. The company tried to take advantage of the pandemic, by
making totally false and misleading claims in a bid to make profit. 

The Immunity-Boosting Sanitizer Case

Even a company as reputed as Hindustan Unilever came scrutiny after

the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) issued the company a
show-cause notice after its advertisements for an apparently
“immunity-boosting” sanitizer, which helps to prevent coronavirus.
Since the product does not actually boost immunity, the DGCI
concluded that making such a claim amounted to a false and
misleading advertisement.
Instances of steps taken by the ASCI Against Misleading
Advertisements
In recent years, ASCI has upheld a number of complaints against
advertisers including, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Airtel and Lucky-
Goldstar (LG). 

The Consumer Complaints Council rebuked HUL for a false and

misleading advertisement of “Pureit Ultima” water purifier. The
advertisement for this product made a claim that only Pureit Ultima
has a purity indicator which shows how clean or pure the water is;
“Sirf is mein hai Purity Indicator jo saaf saaf dikhata hai ki paani
kitna pure hai.” This claim was false and misleading as it was untrue. 

LG Electronics came under criticism for a similar reason, for an

advertisement for its water purifier, which claimed that it is “India’s
only true water purifier.” This claim was not at all substantiated, and
LG was forced to submit a clarification about the same to the ASCI.

Airtel was also directed by ASCI to remove or to modify its

advertisement wherein it had claimed that its networks are the fastest
networks in India. Its rival, Reliance Jio had filed a complaint against
this advertisement, contending that it was “false, misleading and
incorrect”. The Complaints Committee upheld the complaint filed by
Jio and concluded that Airtel’s advertisement was misleading by
“ambiguity and implication.”

Conclusion
To summarize, the Advertisement Standards Council of India is a
non-governmental, non-profit and self-regulatory body. Its role as a
self-regulatory body has recently received recognition from the apex
court of India. The ASCI has come a long way in restricting
exaggerated and unfair claims made by various advertising agencies.
In light of the fact that driven by financial and capital motives, brands
often tend to mislead the public through false and unfair advertising,
the establishment of ASCI and enforcement of its code is a welcome
step in our society which furthers the interests of the end consumer.