Ad Industry Gets Divided Over Self-declaration Mandate

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is contemplating reducing the number of sectors requiring self-declaration certificates (SDCs) for advertisements. This consideration comes in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling on 7 May 2024 which mandated that all advertisements must undergo review before broadcast.

The court's directive requires advertisers and agencies to submit self-declarations to the MIB's Broadcast Seva Portal (BSP) for TV and radio ads and to the Press Council of India's (PCI) portal for print and digital/internet ads. Since the ruling, approximately 35,000 SDC submissions have been made to the PCI portal while the BSP portal has received around 5,000 submissions.

Representatives from various advertising and media sectors voiced concerns that the current SDC requirements negatively impacted the industry's operations and growth.

Sudeep Chawla, Vice President – Marketing at Pidilite shared his perspective on the impact of SDCs stating, "Introduction of SDC creates operational complexity. Whatever be the guidelines, advertisers and broadcasters would find a way to deal with it but the operational cost of running a campaign would go up slightly. I don't think it will have an impact on campaign timelines, but addition of any kind of friction makes the overall process cumbersome & consumer-unfriendly and that will hold true in this case also."

He further questioned the effectiveness of the self-declaration process, "I see brands as well as broadcasters adding manpower & cost to comply with the new guideline, but I am not sure what purpose would it serve. A brand is always responsible for the claims it makes in its creatives. Just signing another declaration doesn't seem like a logical step."

Adapting to New Regulations
While some industry players view the SDC requirements as an additional bureaucratic hurdle, others see it as an extension of existing internal processes.

Zoher Kapuswala, Marketing Head, Indian Subcontinent for Tic Tac, Nutella, and Ferrero Rocher offered a more optimistic view expressing, "All companies including Ferrero are very particular about reputation. Even before the regulation came in, we had a process where we used to go through a legal team and corporate communications team which was there even before the shoot happens."

Kapuswala elaborated on Ferrero's comprehensive approach asserting, "We do understand, it's not business for now, but it is reputation on a long-term basis, which we need to protect. For us, it's only a change as we were following the process, it's only documentation, which is being added."

Digital Advertising Challenges
The implementation of SDCs poses unique challenges for digital advertising, particularly on platforms like Google and Meta.

Yatnesh Pandey, VP- Marketing at Greenply Industries, highlighted these concerns commenting, “Adopting this judgment in digital is going to be very challenging, if one considers each social media post, influencer post, collaboration etc as an individual creative. Doing moment marketing will become a thing of the past too!”

Pandey further emphasised the potential negative impact on the industry saying, "Though through SDC intent is to fixed ownership and responsibility to creators claim however in absence of proper regulation it's going to dilute swift creative responses of adv industry specially in digital media side and it gonna make negative impact to industry growth which already witnessing single digit in first half."

What To Look Forward To?
As the MIB works on refining the regulation to simplify it for the industry, focusing specifically on the food and health sectors, the advertising community remains cautiously optimistic. The ministry's willingness to address industry concerns and adopt a more flexible approach signals a potential shift towards a more balanced regulatory framework.

However, as Chawla points out, the long-term implications of these changes remain to be seen. "It is a drain on operational aspects of a campaign. I don't think it will impact the costs too much, but it will just make the process more tedious and will add another barrier for small enterprises who would've wanted to advertise", he remarks.

In a critical assessment of the Self-Declaration Certificate (SDC) mandate, Chawla also raises several pertinent questions that highlight the complexities and potential pitfalls of the new system. He questions the necessity of the certificate given existing liability frameworks and ponders the logistical challenges of certificate validity periods and the criteria for requiring new certifications. He also expresses concerns about the security of uploaded information, particularly for new product launches and the ambiguity surrounding certificate requirements for multiple edits of the same advertisement.

The coming months will be crucial for the government, marketers, advertisers and media platforms as they work towards a solution that balances regulatory oversight with the need for creative freedom and operational efficiency in advertising.

Reema Bhaduri

BW Reporters The author is the Editorial Lead at BW Businessworld. Majorly writes on marketing, advertising, experiential marketing and retail. She closely looks upon the vertical of BW Marketing World and BW Retail World.