IMC: Advertising & Sales Promotion

Presentation on:

‘Regulations in Advertising’

“Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.”

- Bovee

What is Advertising?

What are Advertising Regulations?

Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules defining the ways in which products can be advertised in a particular region.

Why do we need,

Regulations in Advertising?

"Advertising is a non-moral force, like electricity, which not only illuminates but

electrocutes. Its worth to civilization depends upon how it is used."

(J. Walter Thompson)The namesake & Founder of the JWT advertising agency

- Advertising has been in the vortex of controversy of the many ills that it brings to society

- It is accused of encouraging materialism and manipulating our behaviour generally contributing to the downfall of our social system.

Hence, there comes a need for regulatory bodies

- Truthful and fair to consumers and competitors.

- Within the bounds of generally accepted standards of public decency.

- Not used indiscriminately for the promotion of products, hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals particularly minors, to a degree unacceptable to society at large.

The purpose of the regulatory bodies would be to make sure that advertisers and advertisements are -

Purpose

Some of the well known regulatory bodies are-

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)

Federal Trade Commission for United States

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for United Kingdom

Advertising Standards Authority ASA) for South Africa

Advertising Regulatory Bodies Around the World

(ASCI)

-Was set up in 1985

-The Advertising Agencies Association of India, the media owner's association and the Indian Newspapers Society, came together and took the initiative to form the ASCI (the council)

- The council was voluntary and self-regulatory, registered as a non-profit Company .

Composition of ASCIThe Council is managed by a Board of Governors

consisting of 16 elected members, constituted as follows:

- 4 from Advertisers

- 4 from Advertising Agencies

- 4 from Media and

- 4 from Allied Professions like outdoor contractors, audio-visual producers/distributors, consumer researchers, printers, etc.

ObjectivesThe objectives of ASCI are to make sure

advertisers and advertisements are-

- Truthful and Honest- Not offensive- Not hazardous to society- Fair with competitors

The Complaints the ASCI receives are handled by Consumer Complaints Council (CCC)

CONSUMER COMPLAINTS COUNCIL (CCC)

Birth and composition of CCC

The ASCI’s Board of Governors set up a Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) to examine complaints received by the ASCI.

The composition of the CCC is as follows:   9 from within the advertising industry

representing advertisers, advertising agencies, media owners and allied professions.

12 from society at large, consisting of eminent consumer activists, educationists, prominent journalists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc

- For public awareness sake, from  time-to-time the Council puts out advertisements in newspapers

- This invites them to complain to the Council

Each year the Council receives approximately 150 complaints.

- 50 % Upheld- 80% Voluntarily modified/withdrawn

Receiving complaints

This is one of the ads of ASCI encouraging people to complaint against ads making false claims!

Complaining Procedures

Online and Offline complaining

Who can Complaint?

ANYONE!

There are two ways of complaining to CCC. They are through

- Online and- Printed form

The form can be downloaded from,

ASCI’s Official Website - http://www.ascionline.org/

Online Complaint Form

Printed Form

This is the form that has to be filled and sent to ASCI

CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDIES: CASE 1 DECISION IN FAVOR OF COMPLAINANT

Brand- Bajaj Pulsar

Complaint- Visuals had bikers doing extreme stunts but the disclaimer was almost invisible. So complaint was filed keeping in consideration of the recent bike stunt mishaps.

CCC said that- This shows dangerous stunts without having a regard for safety and hence some action should be taken by the brand.

Result- Ad was modified with a clear disclaimer in the beginning itself.

CASE STUDIES: CASE 2 DECISION IN FAVOR OF COMPLAINANT

Brand- AXE Dark Temptation Deodorant

Complaint- Ad is in bad taste and is vulgar, as it shows the girls licking and biting the boy. The scene of the girl biting his backside is highly objectionable.

CCC said that- The Visuals were indecent and likely to cause grave or widespread offence.

Result- Ad was modified by deleting a few scenes

CASE STUDIES: CASE 3 DECISION IN FAVOR OF COMPLAINANT

Brand- KFC

Complaint- Car crashes after driver loses concentration while eating KFC product. Showing eating while driving a car, is promoting an unsafe practice. The words "non stop khao, non stop khilao", in conjunction with the Ad being of KFC bucket size pack, is clear intention of advertiser promoting over/excessive consumption of KFC, which being fried chicken has high content of fat in it.

CCC said that- Visual depiction of the “driver licking his finger” implied that he has been eating whilst driving, which could result in harm to the driver/passengers. Ad shows a dangerous practice without justifiable reason

Result- Ad was modified

CASE STUDIES: CASE 4 DECISION IN FAVOR OF ADVERTISER

Brand- MOTOROLA

Complaint- A father telling his son to be responsible and not to litter the house. The son who is shown having a mobile phone (Motoyuva model) with earphones just keeps staring at his father and increases the voice of the music on the mobile hone therby making the voice of this father fading. Ad conveys the message that it is cool for today’s youth to just ignore what their elders are telling them.

CCC said that- The “behaviour of the son ignoring his father”, as shown in the Ad, was not likely to cause grave or widespread offence.

Result- Complaint Not Valid

CASE STUDIES: CASE 5 DECISION IN FAVOR OF ADVERTISER

Brand- BIG BAZAAR

Complaint- Print ad has the tagline- “Is se sasta aur accha kahin nahi!”. According to the Complainant,

there are items available outside, which are cheaper than what Big Bazaar claims.

CCC said that- Claim misleading by exaggeration.

Result- The Advertiser provided comparative bills of Big Bazaar and other stores, which proved that on a basket of commodities, they are cheaper. So no changes to the ad was made.

BIG BAZAAR- PRINT AD

AdvertisingRegulatory

Body In USA

FederalTrade

Commission(FTC)

COMPARING FTC WITH ASCIASCI is a non- profit organization while FTC is a

government organization

FTC collects complaints about companies, business practices, and identity theft while ASCI only concern advertising.

The FTC enters all complaints it receives into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide. This is not the process in ASCI as it is not govt and hence can’t and doesn’t involve law enforcement authorities and also they receive very less complaints.

FTC COMPLAINT LODGING PROCESS- LONG AND COMPLEX AS COMPARED TO ASCI

Conclusion

ASCI home page says- Regulate yourself, or someone else will.

Self-regulation is the most advised way to stay out of unwanted troubles. In India, self regulation is quite high considering the low complaints.

Also, when complaints are filed at ASCI, there is a high chance that the brand image may get damaged. So, its high time that advertisers think twice before spending lakhs and crores on an advertisement.