Modifying its mandate that became effective from June 18 which required ‘self-declaration certificate’ for every ad across TV, print, radio, and digital, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) brought much relief to adland by restricting SDCs only to food and health advertisements. Not only the mechanism stands restricted to these two sectors, but the mandate for ‘every ad’ has now changed to the ‘annual SDCs’.
Storyboard18 was the first to break the news.
The latest advisory followed the June 25th meeting of the Ministry with the industry stakeholders including big tech platforms, broadcasters, Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), among others where it had acknowledged the suggestion to limit the mandate to the food and health sectors only and also discussed the need for ‘one time certification’.
To be sure, as per MIB’s advisory dated 3rd July which supersedes its earlier advisories on the self-declaration certificate requirements, 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 the publishing of advertisements on the internet, etc. for the record.
On the new advisory issued by MIB, Manisha Kapoor, CEO and Secretary General, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), said, “MIB has taken cognizance of the various issues related to the working of the portal, the manner in which digital advertising functions, as well as noting that the court had expressed concern with the food and health sectors primarily.”
Kapoor also added that commitment to honest advertising remains paramount and the industry must continue its commitment to being compliant with all applicable laws. Advertising is under increased regulatory scrutiny and advertisers and agencies should take the required steps to ensure compliance. This is true across sectors.
The advisory by MIB said, “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 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.”
These annual certificates by the advertisers/advertising agencies will be uploaded on the Broadcast Seva Portal for TV/radio ads and on the portal of the Press Council of India (PCI) for advertisements print media/internet ads.
It was also clarified that it shall be the responsibility of the advertisers/advertising agencies to ensure that every advertisement being issued by them is in adherence to the applicable Indian laws, rules and regulations in letter and spirit.
Industry stakeholders especially advertisers and agencies have been vocal about the challenges and difficulties they are facing due to the mechanism.
While they acknowledged that SDC is a step in the right direction, the mechanism must not end up squashing the aim of the government’s initiative which is to ultimately end the menace of misleading ads that hurt the end consumer. Various bodies including ASCI, ISA, and DNPA, stakeholders from radio and newspapers, and the ad industry, on multiple occasions highlighted that a mandatory SDC for all ads added complexity and delays, which can be detrimental to the media and advertising agencies’ efficiency and revenues.
While speaking with Storyboard18, Janani Kandaswamy, Senior Category Lead – Brand Marketing, ITC, has in fact highlighted last month that “maybe the regulation need not apply to all type of ads (like ads which do not have a technical claim that need to be proved). These dilemmas need to be openly discussed between the MIB and diverse voices representing the advertisers from across brands, creative agencies, market research firms, legal and R&D departments.”
It was also highlighted that the mechanism places a substantial administrative burden on the MIB, necessitating continuous monitoring, record-keeping, and portal’s bandwidth management to accommodate the influx of lakhs of self-declarations daily.
Read more: Despite 80K ‘self-declaration certificates’ uploaded, it’s not ‘business as usual’ for advertisers
Till July 3, advertisers and agencies across categories were required to upload SDC before each advertisement was released, irrespective of the number of ads in a single day. As of present, PCI has around 66,000 SDCs on its portal, whereas BSP has around 8,000 SDCs on its portal. It’s worth noting that the volume of ads in the country is high.
It is for the first time, that the Ministry has either mentioned an ‘annual’ SDC or restricted the mandate just for the food and health sectors, essentially limiting the mandate to high-risk categories where the threat of misleading or false claims can hurt consumers.
From January 2023 to December 2023, there were about 3.4 billion digital ads, 860 millions TV ads and 1.3 million print ads as per industry reports. Then there are radio ads, other forms of advertising like influencer marketing and UGC, small and medium enterprises advertising in regional publications.
On June 25, the Ministry acknowledged that what stemmed from the Patanjali misleading ad case and false health-specific claims got extrapolated to all the sectors. Thus, it deliberated on whether the interpretation of the Supreme Court order was done correctly or not and further shared its intention to make it limited to the health and food sector.
While addressing the issues and softening its stance on the matter, the government noted that it is working towards tuning the regulation — thus making it simpler for the industry and limiting the scope to the food and health sector.
Three advertisers Storyboard18 spoke to said there is a clear sense of relief among marketers. They also highlighted that agencies too would benefit from this revision given that many advertisers had passed the SDC can down to agencies, offloading the administrative burden on ad firms.
A CMO of a large FMCG firm said it was a mess earlier, now there seems to be some clarity and a more sensible approach. However, advertisers are seeking more clarity on products and services that fall under Food & Health, as the latter could also include wellness products and services. There’s also more clarity required on publishers’ obligations to obtain the SDC.
But the SDC by itself won’t guarantee that there won’t be misleading ads, said a food brand’s marketing head. “Nothing will change until the focus shifts to the bad actors,” he said, referring to rogue advertisers and repeat offenders. They added, the challenge has always been in the enforcement of ad regulations and laws. “We need to penalize rogue advertisers, impose ad bans on them… Until that is fixed, there will always be people breaking the rules.”
Business strategist and investor Lloyd Mathias said that questions one needs to ask is how do we reinforce integrity and how do you penalise rogue advertisers. He said, “There has to be a method where advertisers making false claims or misleading ads are penalised swiftly. If you’ve deliberately made a false claim, despite certification of which there are regulations in place, do you get banned from media? So no advertiser registered in this country can take your communication for a six-month period. That will make advertisers far more cognizant about their responsibility to society.”
He added, “there will always be rogue elements, like there is in any society. But I think the issue that needs to be resolved is at that end.”