Advertising Standards Council Research Articles

A Prevalence Study of Delusive Advertisements in India and Its Regulation

Did drinking Horlicks make you taller and sharper? Is this true or were you sold a lie? In times of rising competition in the world of business, most companies have resorted to advertisement campaigns aimed at luring consumers to buy their products. There is increased use of advertisements to market products and increase the purchasing power of consumers worldwide. However, the strategy is used at the expense of the consumers through the propagation of misleading information. Although adverts are free to be creative with their advertisements, they must not exceed the boundaries of fairness. Food advertisements in India are under the control of FSSAI and the Advertising Standards Council of India ASCI. Section 24 of the FSS Act, 2006 strictly prohibits the use of deceiving claims for the promotion and sale of products and is a punishable offence. Under Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Government has the power to deal with complaints related to misleading advertisements and false claims. The FSSAI has put many products under its radar over misleading claims and has begun prosecution proceedings in more than 100 cases under the FSS Act. In order to protect consumer interest, the government should establish more stringent laws and be a watchdog in regulating misleading advertisements. There is also a rising need of educating consumers about advertisements, their standards and legislation. Consumers and their organizations must exercise their rights against dishonest advertising and bring such cases to the notice of enforcement groups.

Healthcare advertisement (promotion) – ethical and legal issues - Applicability of Indian laws - An analysis

Advertising is a form of Communication meant to entice and persuade the audience to buy a product/service offered by the communicator. Advertising has become the important way of reaching the consumers. Consumers are faced with numerous advertisements in everyday life either for product/service in print media, electronic/digital media and so on and so forth. This has become a difficult task for the promoters of the product/service as well the consumers who are in need of product/service. In India presently no central statutory agency or uniform legislature to regulate advertising industry; and advertising market is regulated and controlled by a statutory body such as Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), and advertising agencies should comply with all local and national advertisement laws that are prevailing in the country, for the time being in force. Healthcare globalization and with the advent of corporate culture in healthcare, advertisement has taken multidimensional change. In addition to journal laws healthcare advertisement attracts other laws also and liable for civil/criminal prosecution, because it relates to Human beings. This review article made an attempt to study the advertising flaws and the remedial measures with respect to Indian Laws in particular in healthcare sector. Suggestions are made with respect to healthcare laws which are now having their loop holes for the healthcare sector people to come over successfully from the clutches of laws and how to plug them and also some other suggestions that make the healthcare sector more responsible in their promotional campaign.

Unfair Promotion of Whitening Creams: Is Beauty No More Skin Deep?

Fairness industry is a multi-billion business endorsing the notion that being ‘fair’ is beautiful and being ‘dusky’ is always risky. This article explores how the advertising of fairness cream belittles the existence of women in India. Focusing on the promotion of whitening brands as a case study, the authors bring out the contradictions and unverifiable assertions in the marketing philosophy of beauty, the social obsession, the aspirations of young men and women, the Bollywood glamour, and the darker side of fairness. It is appalling to see the reckless promotional campaigns even when the tons of whitening tubes cannot change what is genetically determined by the amount of melanin in the skin. Such advertising campaigns of whitening creams and their strategies rob not only the consumers of their self-esteem but also infuse a false sense of inferiority and guilt. The article seeks to understand the marketing campaigns of whitening creams and suggests that their advertising appeals can be altered to salvage the image of Indian women whose survival is not just confined to the skin tone. It further urges the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)1 to have stringent guidelines to check the representation of stereotypical assumptions of women and their social status in advertisements.

Status of Deceptive Advertising Practices in India: 2015–2017

In India, the deception in advertisements is increasing day by day. One of the significant causes of ad deception is enhanced competition among firms. The qualitative research explores the errors in positioning strategies of the advertisements in the Indian context. The study attempts to analyze which categories/sector is more deceptive in terms of advertising practices adopted. The study also reveals a trend of deception in advertising for over three years of 2015–2017. The study uses content analysis to divide the sectors among which advertising standard council of India found complaints about misleading advertisements. Through content analysis, the sectors framed are health care, education, information technology (IT) and communication, food and beverages, ecommerce, personal care product and others. The present research takes month-wise data of 36 months from January 2015 to December 2017 for the deceptive advertisements in India from the website of the Advertising Standards Council of India. The findings provide new insights about the number, frequency and trend of deceptive advertising practices adopted by the above-defined sectors in India.

Nature of green advertisements in India: Are they greenwashed?

This study performs a systematic content analysis of Indian English green print advertisements for the years 2010 and 2011 to verify if greenwashing is prevalent. Green advertisements were analysed based on four dimensions – (1) claim specificity, (2) greenwashing category, (3) incidence of associative claims and (4) presence of certifications. The results indicate that 51.7% of the claims were greenwashed and most of them were vague or ambiguous (37.7%). Most claims lacked specificity (67.0%) and image claims (60.0%) were widely used. Very few advertisements (3.3%) employed certifications to substantiate their claims. Interestingly, we also found that more than half of the image-related claims (55.8%) were categorized as misleading and highly specific claims were considered acceptable. We suggest that either the self-regulatory body – the Advertising Standards Council of India – or the legal regulatory framework accommodate well-defined provisions for regulating green claims in advertisements to curb greenwashing.

HUL's tidy advertising strategy - a case study of Indian laundry segment

The proxy war between the brands, Rin and Tide of detergent category of the multinational giants HUL and P&G that commenced in December 2009 has entered into non-price to price war, promotion war, brand war, legal war on several fronts, unethical practices war, flouting of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) rules, war to denigrate and outwit each other, open war and indeed what not in a ‘guerrilla marketing’ way. Though Indian marketing has seen lot of such wars, Rin vs. Tide is a rare case where one brand has challenged its competitor’s brand head on. The intervention of the law of the land has put this war temporarily on hold, and has restrained the parties from taking potshots awaiting final verdict, but the detergent episode has put under review the application strategy of side by side advertising that may take unprecedented turns in times to come in the big Indian market for gaining market share by the brands of different industries. The wrestle between the two leads to the conception of desperation-driven strategy perfected by timing of its application. Consumers’ intervention through complaints to ASCI against the tidy strategy gives another twist to it that might cause their mistrust on the brands.

Upholding whose values? Australia's advertising standards bodies, 1974‐2009

PurposeThis paper seeks to develop a clearer understanding of the operations and decisions made by Australian advertising standards bodies, the Advertising Standards Council and its successor, the Advertising Standards Board. It also seeks to identify whose interests have been served by these advertising standards organisations – those of the public or those of the advertising industry.Design/methodology/approachUsing annual reports and reports in mainstream press outlets, this paper compares the two advertising standards bodies, their respective organisational structures, and their decisions, in order to identify the key issues that have confronted Australia's advertising regulation bodies.FindingsIn addition to demonstrating the fundamental similarities between the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board, this paper raises serious questions about self‐regulation and the way that it serves the advertising industry's interests ahead of the public interest.Originality/valueThis is the first long‐term comparative survey of the operations, activities and decisions of the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board that also reveals the fundamental shortcomings of the current advertising standards codes.

Advertising to children in India

Outlines Indian law relating to advertising to children, and stresses that the legislation has far to go in order to meet European and American standards. Explains the provisions of the Cable Act on books and magazines, focusing next on the controversial children’s TV programme series “Shaktiman”, which has caused child fatalities. Moves on the lack of guidelines over acceptable advertising or the use of child models in advertisements; there are however specific laws and a procedure for complaints to the Advertising Standards Council, and control of the Internet is strict, while the Board of Film Certification awards viewing ratings. Concludes that the laws relating to advertising to children, while better than they were, are not comprehensive and are often flouted; there is no restriction on advertising to schools, although there are guidelines on the sale of cigarettes and alcohol, and the government’s emphasis on breastfeeding has led it to prohibit the promotion of commercial alternative baby foods.

Advertising to children in India

Outlines Indian law relating to advertising to children, and stresses that the legislation has far to go in order to meet European and American standards. Explains the provisions of the Cable Act on books and magazines, focusing next on the controversial children’s TV programme series “Shaktiman”, which has caused child fatalities. Moves on the lack of guidelines over acceptable advertising or the use of child models in advertisements; there are however specific laws and a procedure for complaints to the Advertising Standards Council, and control of the Internet is strict, while the Board of Film Certification awards viewing ratings. Concludes that the laws relating to advertising to children, while better than they were, are not comprehensive and are often flouted; there is no restriction on advertising to schools, although there are guidelines on the sale of cigarettes and alcohol, and the government’s emphasis on breastfeeding has led it to prohibit the promotion of commercial alternative baby foods.

Disbanding an Effective System for Self Regulation of Advertising: Beyond the Media Council of Australia

This paper analyses the role of government, advertisers, advertising agents, and the industry complaints body in unravelling what was once an effective self regulatory system for advertisements. It outlines the connection between the system for the accreditation of advertising agents and the system of fuzzy Codes of Practice rules for the content of advertisements that regulated Australian advertising until the end of 1996. It shows how a revamped competition policy, government review, aggrieved advertisers and an entrenched Advertising Standards Council contributed to the demise of the Media Council system of self regulated advertising. The paper describes the new self regulatory system that has been put in place and analyses both the old Media Council Code of Practice rules and the rules of the new Advertiser Code of Ethics.

Legal Aspects of Comparative Advertising and a Strategy for Its Use

This paper will consider the web of laws governing the use of comparative advertising in Australia, with some attention given to the law in Europe and the US. It should also be acknowledged that in Australia at least, there exists a plethora of industry associations enforcing a range of voluntary codes. These include the industry- wide codes of the Media Council of Australia (MCA), codes adopted by associations of media proprietors, such as the Federation of Commercial Television Stations (FACTS) and the Federation of Australian Broadcasters (FARB). The Advertising Standards Council (ASC) is an independent Council which deals with complaints that advertisers breach MCA codes. All advertisements must be approved by the appropriate body before they are broadcast (eg FACTS for television advertisements).

Do our guardians need guarding? An examination of the Australian system of self‐regulation of alcohol advertising

In this study the Australian system of self-regulation of alcoholic beverage advertising was examined. Sixteen advertisements, eight print and eight television advertisements, were subjected to public scrutiny. Respondents rated advertisements using a self-completion questionnaire based directly on the Australian Alcoholic Beverage Advertising Code. Responses were collated and where a majority of respondents had endorsed items that constituted a breach of the cose, a complaint, ostensibly from a member of the general public, was made to the Advertising Standards Council. All sixteen advertisements were regarded by the public as containing aspects which breached the code. However, the Advertising Standards Council rejected all but one of the sixteen complaints, often directly contradicting the opinions of our respondents. The social policy implications of these results are considered. It is contended that the system of self-regulation of alcohol advertising does not serve the public interest.

Self Regulation of Advertising: The Impact of Information and Attitudes

AbstractData from a sample of advertising executives in Vancouver indicated limited exposure and access to the codes administered by the Advertising Standards Council. Advertising managers with high levels of access and exposure to the set of codes examined tended to hold favourable attitudes towards the codes and the self‐regulatory process. Positive evaluations and behavior supportive of self‐regulation were found to be associated with exposure and access to the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and the Broadcast Code of Advertising to Children.RésuméLe résultat d'un échantillon d'administrateurs de publicité à Vancouver indique qu'ils ont accès très limité aux codes de l'Advertising Standards Council. Çeux qui on accès aux codes examinés ont tendance d'être favorable envers çes codes et le proçessus régulataire autonome. Des évaluations positives et un support général pour ces proçessus régulataire autonome ont été associé à çeux qui ont eut accès aux Canadian Code of Advertising Standards et le Broadcast Code of Advertising to Children.

Advertising self-regulation under scrutiny in Australia

Australia has a plethora of industry bodies applying a multiplicity of voluntary codes regulating advertising practices. Bodies exist within the advertising industry itself and within commercial media associations. Finally, the Media Council of Australia, an umbrella organization of each of the commercial media associations, has promulgated a general code of advertising ethics as well as a number of codes dealing with the advertising of specific goods and services. The Media Council's codes are enforced by the Advertising Standards Council, a private body comprising representatives of the media and the advertising industry and selected community representatives. The potentially anti-competitive consequences of advertising self-regulation in Australia have caused a number of self-regulatory schemes to fall under the scrutiny of the Australian Trade Practices Commission. This article surveys the evaluation by the commission of the extent to which the anticompetitive consequences of self-regulation in Australia are outweighed by benefits to the public resulting from the operation of the schemes falling within its purview. The accountability of advertising self-regulation to the public interest has recently been subjected to close scrutiny in Australia by the Trade Practices Commission which has the task of enforcing Australia's antitrust and fair trade laws. This article examines the structure and operation of advertising self-regulation in Australia together with its evaluation by the Trade Practices Commission.

Reply to Chapman and McKay

This reply to the Chapman-McKay attack on self-regulation in advertising seeks to clear confusion on who self-regulates — it is not any branch of the industry such as the Tobacco Institute, but the Advertising Standards Council. The reply justifies the five decisions of the Council attacked. The reply demolishes the criticism that greater latitude was shown to cigarette advertising than the ‘smoking control problem’. It also defends Members of the Council from unwarranted slurs on their integrity and ability. The choice of the ‘outside industry’ members is justified. The change by Quit for Life in removing the HCF ‘name tag’ from the Quit For Life commercial is condemned.

Rejoinder to the ASC

The response of the Chairman of the Advertising Standards Council is reviewed and three outstanding problems felt to be central to the dispute discussed. These are the composition of the Council, its closed procedures and determinations, and anomalies in the standard of evidence it has accepted.

A David and Goliath story: tobacco advertising and self-regulation in Australia.

A small group of health workers succeeded in getting the largest tobacco advertising campaign in Australia banned by testing a clause in the advertising industry's voluntary code of self-regulation. The group complained about a series of cigarette advertisements that featured an Australian entertainer who was popular with the young. Though the tobacco company denied the entertainer's major appeal to the young, the chairman of the Advertising Standards Council ruled that the campaign did breach the code. The delay before the complaint was adjudicated--18 months--contrasted with the speed with which a series of antismoking advertisements had been withdrawn after complaints by a tobacco company's advertisers. MOP UP's victory in this case contains several lessons for people interested in restricting the promotional activities of multinational tobacco companies.