New Delhi: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) will shortly issue an advisory to ease the rules on self-declaration of advertisements, bringing relief to the advertising industry, HT has learnt.
The advisory will be addressed to all advertisers and advertising agencies, and media stakeholders running ads on TV channels, in print media and on the internet.
“Accordingly, in light of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, and in supersession of previous Advisories dated 03.06.2024 and 05.06.2024, advertisers/advertising agencies issuing advertisements for products and services related to Food and Health sectors are advised to upload an annual self-declaration certificate on the above-mentioned portals, as applicable, and make available the proof of uploading the self-declaration to the concerned media stakeholders, such as TV channels, newspapers, entities involved in publishing of advertisements on the internet, etc. for the record,” the draft of the advisory, seen by HT, says.
HT had reported on June 26 that the MIB would reduce the sectors for which the SDCs are required, following a meeting with industry associations and digital advertising platforms, including Google and Meta (Facebook) on June 25.
According to the draft of the advisory, the SDCs will be required only for advertisements related to food and health products, and advertisers will need to apply for them only once a year.
{{/usCountry}}According to the draft of the advisory, the SDCs will be required only for advertisements related to food and health products, and advertisers will need to apply for them only once a year.
{{/usCountry}}HT had also reported that the ministry was considering how to simplify the process for obtaining this certificate after hearing complaints from industry associations. The industry associations had suggested that instead of requiring the certificate for every ad, the advertisers could be required to submit their SDCs annually.
In the two meetings with MIB, on June 11 and June 25, respectively, industry associations representing advertisers, advertising agencies, print and digital publishers, social media companies, and many others had asked the ministry to limit the requirement for SDCs to health and food products and raised concerns about the onerous workflow.
The Supreme Court, in its May 7 order in the case of misleading ads related to health and food products by Patanjali, had directed that before the ad was printed, aired or displayed, the advertiser or the advertising agency must submit a self-declaration to the MIB’s Broadcast Seva Portal before it is aired. For print ads and ads on the internet, the apex court had directed MIB to create a new portal within four weeks. “No advertisements shall be permitted to be run on the relevant channels and/or in the print media/internet without uploading the self-declaration as directed above,” the court had ordered.
Subsequently, on June 3, the MIB, to comply with the apex court’s directive, had directed all advertisers to obtain self-declaration certificates for each advertisement from the Broadcast Seva Portal for all radio and television ads and from the Press Council of India’s portal for print and internet/digital advertisements.