Misleading Advertisement would not be tolerated from now on wards. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) today launched an initiative to track and control misleading advertisements.
The National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), instituted in partnership with TAM Media Research, is a paradigm shift for self-regulation in advertising, said the self-regulatory voluntary body of the ad industry.
“The step will strengthen self-regulation and redressal process, as we will be able to proactively monitor wider numbers of ads. This will be in the best interest of consumers, as it will significantly reduce release of misleading ads,” ASCI Chairman I Venkat said.
As part of the initiative, TAM’s division, AdEx, will monitor roughly 350 TV and 10,860 newspaper ads per week. Ads categorised as specifically violating ASCI’s code related to unsubstantiated, misleading or false claims will be monitored.
The scope of work will cover tracking all editions of over 30 newspapers, which contribute to over 80 per cent of national readership, and TV channels in all languages.
AdEx will identify misleading ads which are in potential violation ASCI code in sectors like auto, banking, financial services and insurance, FMCG, consumer durables, educational institutions, healthcare products and services, telecom and real estate. These will be forwarded to ASCI on a weekly basis. ASCI would process them as per its complaint procedure for adjudication.