ISA seeks clarity, urges MIB to postpone implementation of ad self-declaration

The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) has requested Sanjay Jaju—Secretary to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting—to defer the implementation of the self-declaration certificate mandate ordered by the Supreme Court. 

They said in a letter that they support the MIB’s efforts to bring transparency and accountability to the advertising industry. However, they also raised significant concerns about uploading the ads as proposed in the self-declaration process.

One of the concerns that they raised was the lack of security for the uploaded ads, which others can access. This means anyone can search for a brand name and see all current/upcoming assets, impacting confidentiality, especially for new launches.  

ISA members also said that the portal is laggy and tends to hang a lot. This makes the process increasingly encumbering. They also highlighted the issues they faced while procuring OTP while creating an account.

In the letter, the members also sought clarity about needing certificates for social media posts. They also asked whether the process is applicable for all assets or only a set of assets. ISA also posed questions about managing dynamic creative ads.

They noted that matters like the validity period of the certificate, the frequency of the certificate for every edit or every campaign, the provision in case there are changes to the creative after the application is submitted either before the airing or mid-airing also remain ambiguous. 

“The process of filling out, printing and scanning the application each time is cumbersome given the quantum of creatives, there is a need to make the process fully digital to improve both efficiency and sustainability,” they added.

As the self-declaration is required to be undertaken prior to the advertisement being published on the public domain, it was clarified that the said requirement may be satisfied by giving a link to a private drive that enables access to a specific file stored on the advertiser's cloud storage. 

Given the self-declaration requirement applies to micro and small entities as well, such individuals and entities may not have the capabilities or resources to provide for access to files on a private cloud, particularly on a perpetual basis, according to ISA’s letter. Further, this could also lead to conflicts with internal cyber security measures in an organisation and other confidentiality issues.