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Standards and Codes of Advertisement in India – A Critical Insight* Mr. K.Bhanu Prakash** Mr.K.Satyanarayana ** * Dr. J.Chandra Prasad
ABSTRACTAdvertising is the life blood of all businesses. It persuades and turns people’s
attention to a specific thing. Advertising is like a kaleidoscope exhibiting different perspectives. Without advertising no products or services could flow to distributors or sellers and on to the consumers or users. Ethics is said to be the science of moral, moral principle and recognized rules of conduct. Advertising ethics has been, and continues to be, a mainstream topic in advertising research.
Direction setting for advertising practices in Philippines is governed by the Advertising Board of the Philippines (Adboard). In USA ‘The Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE)’ is administered by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The Code of Advertising in Australia has been adopted by the AANA (Australian Association of National Advertisers) as part of advertising and marketing self-regulation. The advertising practices in UK are regulated and governed by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) the UK's independent regulator.
Like other countries around the world, India too has a self regulatory organization for advertising content i.e., The Advertising Standards Council of India(ASCI ) founded in 1985 with the three main constituents of advertising industry viz., advertisers, advertising agencies and media. The aim of ASCI is to maintain and enhance the public's confidence in advertising. Their mandate is that all advertising material must be truthful, legal and honest, decent and not objectify women, safe for consumers especially children and last but not the least, fair to their competitors. This paper critically examines the ethical standards and codes of advertising prescribed by ASCI. The standards which are prescribed by ASCI should be taken as minimum standards of acceptability which would be liable to be reviewed from time to time in relation to the prevailing norms of consumers’ susceptibilities. Unethical advertising methods use falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truthful facts to deceive the public. Finally, "A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.__________________________________________________________________________*Mr.K.Bhanu Prakash, M.Com.,M.Phil.,(Ph.D.,), Associate Professor, SAP FI/CO & HR Consultant, Vestal Institute of Management & IT, Eluru, A.P.,e-mail: [email protected]** Mr.K.Satyanarayana, M.Com.,M.Phil.,M.B.A., M.A.,(Litt.,)(Ph.D.,), Associate Professor, Akula Gopayya College of Management, e-mail: [email protected] . ***Dr.J.Chandra Prasad,M.Com.,M.B.A., M.A.,(Litt.,), M.A.,(HR), B.L., Ph.D., Principal, DNR Colleges, Bhimavaram,A.P., e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
The word advertising is derived from the Latin word viz., ‘advertero’, ‘ad’ meaning
towards and ‘verto’ meaning ‘I turn’. Literally it means ‘to turn people’s attention to a
specific thing. Advertising is mass paid communication , the ultimate purpose of which
is to impart information, develop attitudes and induce action beneficial to the advertiser
(generally the sale of a product or service).1 Advertising as essentially form of
communication through such diverse media as handbills, newspapers, magazines, bill
boards, letters, radio, and television broadcasts and motion pictures. 2
Advertising is the life blood of all businesses. Without advertising no products or
services could flow to distributors or sellers and on to the consumers or users.
Advertising is a booster of our market economy. It informs people about new products,
services or brands, or improvements of existing ones so they can make rational and
carefully considered buying decisions. Advertising creates transparency and therefore a
greater variety of offers. All this contribute to boost sales, enhance efficiency, stimulates
the economy in the form of creation of employment and enhance the level of incomes.
________________________________________________________________________
1. Colley, R.H., Defining Advertising Goods for Measured Advertising Results, 1961.
2. Encyclopedia of Britannica
Advertising is like a kaleidoscope exhibiting different perspectives. India is an
emerging market and Indian Advertising has remained robust in spite of signs of
sluggishness. The advertisements have been rolled out in leaps and bounds. Today, it is
much more than few printed lines or some pictures with some printed text.
Advertisements are meant to convey the marketers’ message to the prospective customers
and to lure/persuade them to purchase the products.
Today advertising still persists in our minds with negative connotations. That’s also
obvious to their creator. There is a dire need to the Advertisers to design attracting and
appealing advertising which is entertaining, enticing and catching the pulse of the
viewers. Their main task is to get the attention of the audience. The producers of the
enlisted product want their product to be noticed and to gain center stage for just a few
seconds. That’s the main task and challenge of the whole advertising industry. It is
difficult to the Advertiser to catch the attention of the viewers and therefore do
everything for it. They use sexual innuendoes, break taboos or shock the audience
(Bolten, 2009)3
Advertising plans form a part of the marketing plan, which is the part of the
company’s long term goals. Advertising plans define the positioning strategy, the target
consumers and their behaviour. Successful advertising is a result of clear objectives and
strategies. A well-planned creative strategy through appropriate media is necessary for
the success of ad campaigns.
________________________________________________________________________
3. Maike Dürk, , Ethical Claims in Advertising, GRIN Publishing, Munich, 2011.
The word ‘ethics’ is derived from the Latin word ‘ethicus’ and the Greek word
‘ethikos’ meaning character or manners. Ethics is a set of moral rules or principles of
behavior for deciding what is right and wrong (Longman Dictionary, 1995). In short, it is
a code of conduct that guides an individual in dealing with others. Ethics is said to be the
science of moral, moral principle and recognized rules of conduct. Ethics is the
philosophical study of morality. It aims to study the goodness, the goodness of a life or
an action. Business Ethics can be described as a company’s responsibility for its actions
and their consequences (Franken, 2010, p.223)4. On the other hand, social responsibility
is a more nebulous phenomenon. It is understood as the obligation of decision-makers to
take actions which protect and improve the welfare of the society as a whole along with
their own interests. (Aswathappa, 2007)5. Social responsibility is the next step to ethics
as it is not possible to have social responsibility without ethical behavior and ethics
without social responsibility.
Advertising ethics has been, and continues to be, a mainstream topic in advertising
research. Codes of Ethics for advertising practices in India are issued by the Advertising
Standard Council of India. The Code of Ethics in Advertising, hereinafter referred to as
“the Code”, constitutes a set of standards and contains a set of principles that should be
obeyed by entrepreneurs, including especially advertisers and other legal and natural
persons as well as organisational units without legal personality conducting advertising in
Indian territory.
4. Maike Dürk, , Ethical Claims in Advertising, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH, 2011. p.223.
5. Ashwathappa., Essentials of Business Environment, HPH, 2007.
The activities to which the provisions of the Code apply shall be performed with due
diligence, in accordance with the prevailing standards of decency, with a due sense of
social responsibility, and should conform to the principles of fair competition. The parties
to agreements applying to advertising can construct their mutual legal relations at their
own discretion, provided that such relations are consistent with the Code.
Standards and Codes of Advertisement Practices – A Global Perspective
Direction setting for advertising practices in Philippines is governed by the
Advertising Board of the Philippines (Adboard). The governing body of the Adboard
composed of representatives of national organizations involved in advertising practices
who have banded together to promote the development of the advertising industry
through self-regulation, in harmony with industry goals. The Adboard is an umbrella
organization of the advertising industry in Philippines and the Code and Manuals are
"live mechanisms" and are subject to periodic revisions, reviews and refinements toward
improvement of advertising practices of the advertisers.
In USA ‘The Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE)’ is administered by the American
Advertising Federation (AAF). Its fundamental purpose is to inspire advertising, Public
Relations and marketing professionals to practice the highest personal ethics in the
creation and dissemination of commercial information to consumers. The mission of the
IAE is to serve as the primary resource for advertising professionals and academics and
students on issues regarding advertising ethics.
These include (1) Conducting research on the importance of, and issues regarding,
ethics in advertising; (2) Educating advertising, public relations and marketing
communications professionals, and academics and students on the importance and
content of advertising ethics through (a) the articulation of Ethical Principles and
Practices for Advertising, along with the Commentary, on this Web site, and (b) by
conducting online and offline conferences and seminars; (3) Designing and issuing
awards to companies and professionals for enhanced advertising ethics; and (4)
Facilitating interaction between advertising, public relations and marketing
communications professionals, and academics and students for discussion on all areas of
advertising ethics.
The Code of Advertising in Australia has been adopted by the AANA (Australian
Association of National Advertisers) as part of advertising and marketing self-regulation.
The object of this Code is to ensure that advertisements are legal, decent, honest and
truthful and that they have been prepared with a sense of obligation to the consumer and
society and fair sense of responsibility to competitors.
Advertising plays an essential role in today’s world. It informs, entertains and
promotes healthy competition. The advertising practices in UK is regulated and governed
by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and it is the UK's independent regulator of
advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. It works to ensure ads
are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes. Its aims to
ensure that consumers do not just enjoy the ads they see, but they can trust them too. UK
Advertising Codes are some of the strictest in the world. On average, 97 per cent of the
ads we see each day are in line with the Codes. It can take just one complaint to change
or remove a problematic advertisement.
Need for Advertising Code in India
Advertisement is a facet of right to information. A vital aspect of advertising that
makes it a part of Article 19(1)(a) is that it facilitates the dissemination information about
who is selling what product and at which price. Advertisements help people make well-
informed and intelligent economic choices. More important than the right of expression
of the advertiser is the right of the recipient of the advertisement.
Advertisers should ensure that their ads are not offensive or violating the local and
global prescribed standards and should not violate the basic standards of decency,
morality and religious beliefs of viewers. In India, certain ethics must be followed while
creating ads.
Standards and Codes of Advertising Practices in India – Role of ASCI
ASCI is a voluntary Self-Regulation council, registered as a not-for-profit Company
under section 25 of the Indian Companies Act, 1956. The sponsors of the ASCI, who are
its principal members, are firms of considerable repute within Industry in India, and
comprise Advertisers, Media, Ad Agencies and other Professional/Ancillary services
connected with advertising practice. The ASCI is not a Government body, nor does it
formulate rules for the public or the relevant industries.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) (1985) has adopted a Code for
Self-Regulation in Advertising. It is a commitment to honest advertising and to fair
competition in the market-place. It stands for the protection of the legitimate interests of
consumers and all concerned with advertising - advertisers, media, advertising agencies
and others who help in the creation or placement of advertisements
Standards and Codes of Conduct Prescribed by ASCI
Advertising is an important and legitimate means for the seller to create
inquisitiveness about his products. The success of advertising depends on public
confidence. Hence, no practice should be permitted which tends to impair this
confidence. The standards laid down here should be taken as minimum standards of
acceptability which would be liable to be reviewed from time to time in relation to the
prevailing norm of consumers’ susceptibilities.
The ASCI Code of Advertising Practice is cited in 4 Chapters. ‘Chapter One’
deals with certain truthfulness and honesty of representations and claims made while
‘Second Chapter‘makes ensure that the advertisement is not offensive to generally
acceptable standard of public decency. The ‘Third Chapter’ discloses the safeguards
against indiscriminate advertisement in situation or of the promotion of products which
are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals particularly minors and
the focal point of the ‘Fourth Chapter’ is to ensure that advertisement observes fairness in
competition.
Chapter – I
To ensure the Truthfulness and Honesty of Representations and Claims made by
Advertisements and to Safeguard against misleading Advertisements:
1. Advertisement should be truthful. All descriptions, claims and comparisons,
which relate to matters of objectively ascertainable fact, should be capable of
substantiation whenever ASCI called upon.
2. Advertisement claims expressly stated based on or supported by independent
research or assessment, the source and date of this should be indicated in the
advertisement.
3. The advertiser and the advertising agency shall not confer an unjustified
advantage from the person, firm or institution under reference. If and when ASCI
asks the advertiser and the advertising agency is liable to produce the explicit
permission from the person, firm or institution to which reference is made in the
advertisement.
4. Advertisements shall neither distort facts nor mislead the consumer by means of
implications or omissions.
5. Advertisements shall not be so framed as to abuse the trust of consumers or
exploit their lack of experience or knowledge. No advertisement shall be
permitted to contain any claim so exaggerated as to lead to grave or widespread
disappointment in the minds of consumers.
Chapter – II
To ensure that Advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of
Public Decency.
Advertisements should contain nothing indecent, vulgar or repulsive which is
likely, in the light of generally prevailing standards of decency and propriety, to
cause grave or widespread offence.
Chapter – III
To safeguard against indiscriminate use of advertising in situation of the
promotion of product, which are regarded as hazardous or harmful to society or to
individuals, particularly minors, to a degree or a type, which is unacceptable to society at
large.
No advertisement shall be permitted which:
Tend to incite people to crime or to promote disorder and violence or intolerance.
Derides any race, caste, color, creed, or nationality.
Presents criminality as desirable or directly or indirectly encourages people,
particularly children, to emulate it or convey the modus operandi of any crime.
Advertisement affects friendly relations with foreign State.
Advertisements addressed to minors shall not contain anything, whether in
illustration or otherwise, which might result in their physical, mental or moral
harm or which exploits their vulnerability.
Should not encourage minors to enter strange places
Should not feature dangerous or hazardous acts, which are likely to encourage
minors to emulate such acts, which could cause harm or injury.
Should not show minors playing with inflammable or explosive substances.
Should not feature minors for tobacco or alcohol based products.
Advertisement should contain nothing, which is in breach of law, nor omit
anything, which the law requires.
Advertisement shall not propagate products, which are banned under the law.
Advertisement for products whose advertisement is banned or restricted by law
or by this code must not circumvent such restrictions by purporting to be
advertisement for other products.
Chapter – IV
To ensure that the advertisement observe fairness in competition such that the
consumers’ needs to be informed on choice in the market place.Advertisement containing
comparison with other manufacturers or suppliers or with other products including those
where a competitor is named, are permissible in the interest of vigorous competition and
public enlightenment provided:
Evaluate the advertiser’s product with that of competitors’ products.
The subject matter of comparison is not chosen in such a way as to confer an
artificial advantage upon the advertiser or so as to suggest that a better bargain is
offered than is truly the case.
The comparison are factual, accurate and capable of substantiation.
There is a likelihood of the consumer being mislead as a result of the comparison,
whether about the product advertised or that with which it is compared.
The advertisement does not unfairly denigrate, attack or discredit other products,
advertisers or advertisement directly by implication.
Advertisement shall not make unjustifiable use of names, initials of the other firm,
company or institution, nor take unfair advantage of the goodwill attached to the Trade
Mark or symbol of other firms’. Advertisement shall not be similar to any other
advertiser’s earlier run advertisement in general lay out, copy, slogans, visual
representation, music or sound effects, so as to suggest plagiarism.
Legal actions can be taken against advertisements that:
Ridicule caste, race, nationality, colour and creed.
Go against any provision of the Indian Constitution.
Incite people towards criminal activity, provocative, cause disorder and/or violence in the country.
Breach laws and/or glorify obscenity or violence in any form.
Glorify terrorism, communal massacres, criminality and so on.
Ridicule the father of the nation, the national emblem, part of Constitution or the image of a national leader or a state dignitary.
Depict women in a deprecating manner. Females should not be portrayed in a manner that is obscene, exploitative or vulgar.
Display distasteful visual content that goes beyond the established norms of good taste and decency.
Exploit and encourage social evils like child marriage, bride burning and dowry system.
Other Advertising Agencies in India
To regulate advertising practices, ASCI endeavours to achieve compliance with
its decisions through reasoned persuasion and the power of public opinion. Besides
ASCI, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Monopolies Restrictive Trade
Practices Commission (MRTPC), India Chapter of International Advertising
Association(IC OF IAA) and Indian Society of Advertisers & Asian Federation of
Advertising Associations (ISA AND AFAA) propagate their Codes and a sense of
responsibility for its observance amongst advertisers, advertising agencies and others
connected with the creation of advertisements, and the media. Here are some more ethics
and standards to be followed in advertisements:
1. Permission will not be granted where objects are completely or largely
religious or political in nature.
2. Any goods or services that are advertised should not have any defect or
deficiencies of any form declared in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
3. Products should not be portrayed in a way that misleads the public to infer that
the item has some special, miraculous or a super natural quality, which is anyways
difficult to prove.
4. Picture and the audible matter of the advertisement video should not be
excessively 'loud'.
5. Advertisement should not endanger the safety of children or produce any sort
of perversion or interest that prompts them to adopt or imitate unhealthy practices.
6. Any type of offensive, indecent, suggestive, vulgar, repulsive themes and/or
treatment must be avoided under all circumstances.
Final Note
Unethical advertising methods use falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical
advertising uses truthful facts to deceive the public. Remember, the golden words of
David Ogilvy, the famous Ad Guru, "A good advertisement is one which sells the
product without drawing attention to itself." The activities to which the provisions of the
Code apply shall be performed with due diligence, in accordance with the prevailing
standards of decency, with a due sense of social responsibility, and should conform to the
principles of fair competition. The parties to agreements applying to advertising can
construct their mutual legal relations at their own discretion, provided that such relations
are consistent with the Code.
Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (DAGMAR) model
was proposed by Russel H. Colley in 1961 which states that before purchase prospect
goes through 4 steps viz., (i)Awareness, (ii) Comprehension, (iii) Conviction, and
(iv) Action. These steps are also known as ACCA advertising formula.
ACCA/DAGMAR is a descendant of AIDA advertising formula and considered to be
more popular and comprehensive than AIDA. Important parts of the DAGMAR model
are definitions of Target Audience, (people whom the advertising message is addressed
to) and Objectives (goals of advertising message). The another model named
Attention- Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) of advertising seems to work very swiftly in
case of kids and hence constitutes marketers’ prerogative.
Children are even seen as major influence in family purchases, being
unreasonably vocal about their needs and wants, which are otherwise known as ‘pester
power’ or ‘kidfluence’. ‘Pester power’ refers to children’s ability to nag their parents into
purchasing items they may not otherwise buy. Good creative advertisement will always
attract people’s attention, but they should have meaningful visual content and one
shouldn’t have an attitude to play with people’s sentiments and emotions.
The activities to which the provisions of the Code shall be applied and performed
with due diligence in accordance with the prevailing standards of decency as well as
with a due sense of social responsibility. The codes should conform to the principles of
fair competition. The parties to agreements applying to advertising can construct their
mutual legal relations at their own discretion, provided that such relations are consistent
with the Code.
Bibliography
Books
Edward Spence and Brett Van Heekeren., Advertising Ethics ,NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.Spence, Edward;Van Heekeren, Brett., Advertising Ethics, Prentice Hall, 2006.
Barbara MacKinnon., Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues - Concise Edition, Cengage Learning, 2010.
Robin Landa., Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media, John Wiley and Sons, 2010.
Maike Dürk., Ethical Claims in Advertising, GRIN Verlag, Munich, 2011.
S.A.Chunawalla, K.C.Sethea., Foundations of Advertising – Theory & Practice, HPH, 2006.
George E.Belch, Michael A.Belch., Advertising and Promotion, Tata McGrawhill, 2007.
Rajeev Batra, John G.Meyers, David A.Aakar., Advertising Management, Pearson, 2006.
Articles
Michael R. Hyman, Richard Tansey and James W. Clark., Research on Advertising
Ethics: Past, Present, and Future, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Sep, 1994, p.p.
5-15.
Nimal C Namboodiripad., Ethics and Social Responsibility in Advertising, Advertising
Express, September, 2004.
Akhileshwar Pathak., Comparative Advertising in India: Need to Strengthen Regulations,
Vikalpa, Vol.30,No.1, Jan-Mar, 2005, p.p.67-75.
Ravindra K, Manish Kumar Srivastava, and AK Tiwari., Ethics in Advertising: An
Endless Dillemma, Advertising Express, June, 2010.
Minakshi Chauhan Asopa., Emerging Trends in Advertising, Advertising Express,
Vol.XI, No.3, March, 2011.
Surjit Kumar Kaur, Contemporary Advertising Practice and Pester Power in India,
Advertising Express, Vol.XI, No.6,June, 2011.
Websites
www.pia.gov.ph/philinfo/phadv.htm
www.iupindia.in
www.scdl.net
www.iimahd.ernet.in
www.ascionline.org
www.ibscdc.org
www.asa.co.nz/code_financial.php
www.springerlink.com
