Are ad council rules crushing creativity and competition?

It feels that advertising from educational institutions — from universities, colleges and schools to coaching classes, ed tech platforms and others — must not contain messaging that causes physical or mental harm or distress to students

Have you ever wondered about the full-page coaching centre advertisements that celebrate toppers of sundry competitive exams or paste pictures of male students while making claims of improving their math grades?

Are ad council rules crushing creativity and competition?

If advertising industry’s self-regulatory body, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), has its way, it will put a stop to all such communication that reeks of gender bias or, worse still, make students with low scores feel small or unwanted. Earlier this month ASCI recommended making amendments to its “Guidelines for Advertising of Educational Institutions, Programmes and Platforms” and invited public feedback to create a just and equitable code for the sector.

It feels that advertising from educational institutions -- from universities, colleges and schools to coaching classes, ed tech platforms and others -- must not contain messaging that causes physical or mental harm or distress to students.

ASCI CEO Manisha Kapoor says they picked education as it is the biggest culprit in misleading advertising. “Also, with ed-tech becoming bigger, we saw newer kinds of advertising narratives coming through.” In addition to disallowing misleading claims on rankings, 100% placements or best faculty, ASCI will monitor messaging on how these ads tackle the idea of low scores and its impact on students.

Over little more than two years, ASCI seems to have dusted its slothful image and become proactive in pulling up dishonest advertising as well as creating new codes for emerging sectors. It has been hands-on in framing guidelines for gaming, for virtual digital assets (such as cryptos or NFT products) and social media influencers. It has updated the existing codes to add greater inclusivity in ads. After race, caste, creed, gender and nationality, it has now prohibited discrimination or derision on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, body shape, age, and physical and mental conditions. Surrogate liquor advertising guidelines have been updated too.

In fact, this year the council is looking to formalize its training programme for brands to work towards more honest advertising. The ASCI Academy, as it calls it, will play a role in helping the industry raise its standards of advertising through training programmes and collaborative projects, says Kapoor.

However, there’s also a flip side to all of ASCI’s moves which its critics in the ad world are blaming for stifling creativity.

Manish Bhatt, founder-director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, says an overdose of dos and don’ts is restrictive. “Advertising is losing its sense of humour. We need to nurture self-discipline and not always be told what should be done or avoided,” he says.

Abhijit Avasthi, founder, Sideways, says that ASCI is indeed doing a good job in defining codes for new, emerging sectors, especially, in digital media. However, like Bhatt, he feels the council has a responsibility to the ad industry too in addition to consumer protection. “In the age of social media a few negative tweets on a campaign should not become a reason to ask for it to be pulled down. In India people are easily offended. So, ASCI also needs to push back. If it doesn’t, advertising will become bland which will help neither the consumer nor the brand,” says Avasthi.

Not just that. He also feels that as a transparent organization, ASCI must deal with all advertising categories and brands equitably. “Whether it is government ads or ads from brands like Patanjali or real estate builders -- anyone making tall claims or misleading the consumer must be dealt with evenhandedly,” he adds. Bhatt is more concerned with the misuse of rules that are open to interpretation and often used by the powerful to oppress the weak. “I work with a lot of challenger brands, and I have noticed that when they get to a scale, the bigger brands in the category will run to the ad council with complaints about their ads. So, ASCI needs to find that balance and work in consort with the industry,” he says.

ASCI’s Kapoor says there’s a high degree of transparency in the council’s operations and grievances are handled by an independent jury. It is a self-regulatory body with a mandate of voluntary compliance. Only repeat offenders and non-compliant advertiser complaints are escalated to the statutory bodies. “We don’t have penal powers. Still 95% of the cases that we look at get resolved voluntarily. All our decisions are in the public domain.”