The Advertising Standards Council of India was set up in October 1985- by the advertising industry itself consisting of advertisers, advertising agencies, media owners and allied professionals like consumer researchers, processors, film makers, etc to regulate the content of advertising with the primary purpose of protecting consumer interest, but also to ensure fairness in competition.

Anybody who feels an ad is wrong in some way, either dishonest, untruthful, unsafe, indecent, illegal or unfair to competition can complain to ASCI on a plain sheet of paper with a copy of the ad and the ASCI will look into the complaint completely free of charge (to expedite a decision by the CCC, the complaint should be specific, complete ,with particulars of name and date of media concerned and reasons for objections, name and postal address of complainant which is not divulged by ASCI as a policy, proforma sent to complainant by ASCI where necessary).

The ad agency defended it's stand by saying that the body copy was along different lines, and this reaction was because people did not read the whole thing. From an advertising perspective, is this a valid standpoint?

I cannot prejudge what the ASCI decision can be. in the same interview i would not like to comment as an advertising person and as an ASCI Board member. if a complaint is received, the CCC of ASCI will deliberate on it and give a decision. Decisions normally take 6-8 weeks because due process has to be followed (CCC meetings are held once a month)

Does ASCI have any guidelines or rules which agencies try to follow? Is there anything in particular reference to the use of children in ads?

Yes, the ASCI has a Code, a copy of which is being mailed to you please send your postal address. The Code is exhaustive and covers many essential principles primarily protecting consumer interest and to ensure fairness in competition.
Yes, there is also something specifically on children (Chapter.IV.1) the Code is updated from time to time.

CComing to the general queries, what kind of complaints does ASCI usually receive, and in what quantities? Also, I was told that you were at the helm of ASCI when the televised campaign was run asking consumers to come forward. What kind of response did this receive.

The ASCI receives about 150 complaints a year of which about are intra industry complaints i.e. an advertiser/ad agency complaining about an ad. The rest are from consumers.

From time to time ASCI has run an advertising campaign to build awareness among consumers about its existence and to inform consumers about the availability of such a forum to them. Until last year such campaigns were restricted to press. When I as Chairman last year, in addition to a press campaign, we also ran a campaign on tv with the same objective. you may remember it "juth bole, asci kate" the tv campaign ran extensively on mainline hindi channels and dd. the last page of last year's report gives shots from the film and the press ads.

How does ASCI usually take action with regards to complaints? How far is its power?

The ASCI Board consists of 16 members, 4 each from each of the 4 sectors. The Board appoints a CCC to deliberate on complaints. The CCC consists of 21 members, only 9 from within the industry and 12 from outside, consisting of educationists, lawyers, doctors, technologists, consumer activists and the like. The CCC meets once a month to deliberate on complaints that are ready for deliberations , ie both the complaint and the defendant's response is available. The decision of the CCC is final although there is a provision for a review. the CCC decision has no legal sanction although compliance is generally as high as 88%. only in very extreme cases do we have to ask media not to carry offending ads. Also being sent to you is latest compilation of cases processed by CCC with outcome. (please advise our Secretary General, of your postal address soon, and he will send you some very informative literature on the ASCI activities) Phone: (022) 23513982; Fax: (022) 23516863 mailto: asci@vsnl.com ASCI, 219 Bombay Market, 78 Tardeo Road, Mumbai 400034.