Self-certified ads: SC changes life in adland, forever
Guest Column: Manas Mishra, Co-founder & MD, Mediant Communications, writes that the SC order is a major step towards creating accountability in marketing & advertising of consumer products, services
Some of us have been in this situation – except, it was in junior school. One of our batchmates committed a misdemeanour, the class teacher let it pass and the principal came in, punished the entire class for it.
“Please don’t take the public for granted” said the honorable Supreme Court bench to Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurveda in the case of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) vs Patanjali Ayurveda. IMA had accused Patanjali of a smear campaign against the COVID vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine. The SC bench also took cognizance of the failure of the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority (USLA) in suspending manufacturing licenses of 14 products of Patanjali, their stocking and advertisement even after they were banned. The honourable bench made officials of the USLA complicit to this crime. The SC bench had given 4 weeks to all state licensing authorities to file affidavits confirming actions taken on complaints received and how they were ensuring no misleading advertisements were issued by such manufacturers/ advertisers/ ad agencies.
On 7th May 2024, the honourable court took suo moto cognizance of this case against health products and extended the issue to all product categories, particularly food and health products. Their order is a major new step towards creating accountability in marketing and advertising of consumer products/ services. Starting 18th June 2024, every advertiser/ ad agency must submit a self-declaration certificate (signed by an authorised representative) at the Broadcast Seva Portal (BSP) of the I&B Ministry (for TV/ radio ads) and at the Press Council of India (PCI) portal (for Print/ Digital ad). The only exception to this are classified ads, personal, statutory, public notice, tender ads – classified ads related to consumer products/ services would still need a self-declaration submission.
While most of us would have followed the above case at the Supreme Court, the above mandatory guideline may not have dawned on most of us till industry bodies started sharing advisories/ notifications to alert advertising agencies/ media agencies of the urgency of the matter. We are just 8 days away from this provision taking effect as a law.
Industry folk have many questions.
- Format of the self-declaration certificate. One must create a registered profile at the PCI portal before accessing the same.
- Who signs the self-declaration certificate? Advertiser or Ad agency releasing the ad? In case of the latter, the advertiser would need to indemnify the agency partner (especially needed in the case of media agencies/ agencies who haven’t been involved in creating the advertisement).
- Would it not be a duplication of effort (copies of the same at PCI and BSP if it’s a multi-media campaign) – can we not have a central portal for all media?
- Since some campaigns are already under way, will this provision be applicable only for ads that get published/ aired post 18th June?
- How are media houses preparing for this? The judgement makes it clear ‘all broadcasters/ publishers must strictly adhere to this requirement and not to broadcast/ publish any advertisement until and unless a valid self-declaration certificate is submitted by the advertiser. It is the responsibility of broadcasters/ publishers to ensure advertisers have submitted the requisite certificate before airing their advertisements. The authenticity can be verified at the BSP/ PCI portals’.
- In case we are not ready, will the industry get more time to prepare for this? If not, what happens to all advertising starting 18th June 2024?
The honourable court has made a pertinent point to all regulatory bodies (including but not limited to FSSAI/ state licensing authorities) and to the media and consumer product/ services industries - that it’s time we took our consumers more seriously and took accountability for every word we say while promoting our products/ services. An order of such magnitude hasn’t come a day too soon. When news is threatened by fake news, legacy media is challenged by consumer generated content, celebrities are crowded out by influencers, regulation must come to the fore to ensure we preserve the sanctity of the written/ spoken word - we must not mislead (intentionally or unintentionally). The honourable court has only asked questions to the government – about what action is being taken against misleading ads, misrepresenting facts. “We can’t let the public be taken for a ride” said the bench quoting cases of misrepresentation by food products for babies among others.
While ASCI and the media industry bodies have been relentless in their efforts to bring in self-discipline and peer-reviewed ‘conscience’, this order holds a mirror to us as professionals. A self-declaration to the Govt is an affidavit attesting the authenticity, proven efficacy, researched truth, data based/ verifiable claim, indications/ contraindications of our products/ services.
Will this order further shackle our creativity or were we taking too many liberties with our words? Only time will tell.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com.
