ASCI Updates Guidelines For Education Sector Ads

Following extensive public input, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) amended its guidelines for advertising educational institutions, programmes, and platforms. The exercise was carried out to define a set of reasonable and equitable principles on a crucial industry in the country, notably education. The public consultation for the guidelines began on March 14, 2023, and concluded on April 15, 2023. 

When it comes to advertising, education has been one of the most violent areas in recent years. According to ASCI's Annual Complaints Report 2022-23, classical education was placed second among the top violative categories, accounting for 13.8 per cent of total commercials that did not adhere to ASCI's criteria.

While ASCI's existing education guidelines compel educational companies to verify any claims they make in their advertisements with appropriate evidence, this latest amendment assures that advertisers also keep the students' mental and physical well-being in mind. According to the amendments, advertisements by educational institutions, such as universities, colleges, and schools, coaching classes, EdTech platforms, and others that offer education and training programmes, should not stereotype students based on their gender or appearance, nor should those who score low be portrayed as unsuccessful or failures. 

Further to complying with the general rules of ASCI’s Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising, and the existing educations sector guidelines, the advertisements of educational institutions, programmes, and platforms will now have to comply with the following additional guidelines: 

• An advertisement may not show school students compromising on sleep or meals to study as this normalises unhealthy habits which are detrimental to student health.
• While an advertisement may show disappointment with low scores, it must not portray an average or poor scorer as an unsuccessful student or a failure, or show him/ her/ them as demotivated, depressed, or unhappy, or receiving less love or appreciation from parents, teachers or peers.
• An advertisement must not create a false sense of urgency or fear of missing out that could accentuate anxieties amongst school students, or their parents.
• While an advertisement may feature students of any gender, the advertisement must not suggest that certain subjects are associated with particular genders alone. Advertisements must also not suggest that students with high scores are always associated with stereotypical characteristics such as wearing thick glasses. This does not prevent advertisements from depicting such students so long as they do not suggest that only these students are successful.

Responding to the new guidelines,  Shri Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs stated, “Education advertising touches almost every citizen in the country. Ensuring the sanctity of advertising in this sector is an important task. The ASCI guidelines address the various issues that plague the sector and we hope that the industry will follow these in letter and spirit. I would like to reiterate that misleading ads are also a violation of the Consumer Protection Act and all necessary steps will be taken to keep our citizens safe”. 

Talking about the amendment to education guidelines, Manisha Kapoor, CEO & Secretary General, ASCI, commented, "In addition to ads not being misleading, the updated guidelines also provide for the physical and mental well-being of students, particularly school students. While fierce pressure in education is a reality, advertising must not perpetuate this problem. normalise it or exploit student and parental vulnerability. Based on our Ed-Next study, such issues were identified, and post extensive consultation with different stakeholders, we are now issuing the updated guidelines. ASCI remains deeply committed to consumer protection, and we will continue to update our Code to reflect contemporary and emerging concerns in advertising content”.