Few people have left the kind of imprint on India's advertising canvas as Piyush Pandey. An observer who seemed to know what made the country tick, a man who could find humour in life's everyday struggles and spin magic from it, one who understood that to reach the masses you needed to communicate with them in their language and context -- he was all of this and more.
Maximum cases of advertisement norms violations were reported from the healthcare sector during 2023-24, followed by illegal offshore betting and personal care categories, according to the Advertising Standards Council of India's (Asci's) Annual Complaints Report released on Wednesday. The healthcare sector accounted for a maximum 19 per cent or 1,569 of 8,229 advertisements scrutinised by Asci during the year. Illegal offshore betting accounted for 17 per cent, while the share of personal care advertisements was 13 per cent.
Advertisements of charitable organisations and crowdsourcing platforms must not disrespect the dignity of the beneficiaries by showing their graphic images, the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) said in its guidelines for charitable causes released on Thursday. Additionally, these ads must disclose how much of the raised funds would be used as fee by the platform, it added. Acknowledging that crowdsourcing platforms provide reach through ads and organic posts to beneficiaries by helping them tap potential donors, Asci said: "There have been some concerns about ads that create donor distress through the use of images that may be too graphic."
Showing the power social media influencers hold in the advertising industry today, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Thursday said 70 per cent of Indians are likely to buy a product they endorse. In its "Influencer Trust Report," based on a survey of 820 respondents above 18, ASCI said that 79 per cent of respondents trust social media influencers. Out of these, thirty per cent trust the influencers "completely".
Education ads are among the worst offenders when it comes to misleading claims. After keeping tabs on factual discrepancies, the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) is now updating its guidelines for the sector to curb the tendency of such ads to perpetrate negative habits and stereotypes. The industry watchdog has invited public consultation starting on Monday until April 15, following which its updated guidelines will take effect. Inputs and feedback can be sent to contact@ascionline.in.
Greenwashing is making misleading or false environment-friendly claims about a product. Consumers in India currently do not have any way of telling whether a claim is authentic or greenwashing. And one never hears of action against any company for making false claims of being environment-friendly.
Education, healthcare and personal care are the most violative categories of ads, according to the annual complaints report of India's advertising regulator for the last financial year. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Tuesday released its annual complaints report for April 2021-March 2022, taking into account print, television and digital media as it processed 5,532 ads - a sharp rise of 62 per cent from 2020-21. It processed 7,631 complaints - an increase of 25 per cent from last year. Of these, 75 per cent were taken up suo motu by the regulatory body's own artificial intelligence-based tracking system.
Advertisers will have to put a disclaimer while promoting the "highly risky" and unregulated cryptocurrencies from April 1, a self-regulatory body for the industry said on Wednesday. All virtual digital assets (VDAs), which are commonly referred to as crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), will have to put the disclaimer in a "prominent and unmissable" way in campaigns for products and services, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said. The announcement of the guidelines, done after consultations with industry stakeholders, government and financial regulators as well, comes as the advertising for the controversial products and services is on the upswing.
An advertisement showing two women talking about Cars24's promise that you can test drive the car and return it with full refund in seven days if it doesn't work for you has upset a section of men. In the ad, the women say there should be such a policy for husbands, too. "Will same return policy be taken so laughingly as this one if we reverse the #gender? (sic)" asks a complainant to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Another complaint, this time against a FreshToHome ad, reads: "Suggest to ban gory and repulsive photos of animal parts in ads - just as photos of accident victims."
Do away with the grey, and let us have it in black and white. That's the message the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has for digital media influencers. ASCI has brought out draft guidelines for "influencer advertising on digital media", an expanding and so far unmonitored landscape where the lines between personal and promotional content is often blurred. The self-regulatory body wants social media influencers to disclose upfront - through labels or in the case of audio media, by way of an announcement at the beginning and the end of the audio - that the content is promotional and paid for.
Almost each of these companies has a different technology to show for the effectiveness against microbes.
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