In the recently convened meeting with industry stakeholders, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) discussed the Supreme Court's directive that stipulated advertisers and advertising agencies to submit a self-declaration certificate prior to publishing ads across TV, print, digital and radio platforms.
During the meeting, ministry officials emphasised the mandatory nature of this requirement and affirmed that there would be no changes or delays to the implementation date i.e. June 18, 2024. They assured stakeholders of their cooperation but did not entertain any feedback or suggestions for postponement.
Here is how the industry stakeholders are looking at the above development.
What Will Work
“This could lead to higher ethical standards and better-quality advertisements. The requirement for a self-declaration certificate ensures that advertisers take responsibility for their content, potentially reducing the incidence of misleading or inappropriate advertisements,” emphasises Upendran Nandakumar, Founder and CEO, Ayatiworks Technologies.
According to Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions, the self-declaration mandate by the Supreme Court of India for advertisers and advertising agencies can foster greater transparency in the advertising industry. It may lead to more responsible advertising practices, ensuring that advertisements are truthful, accurate and compliant with regulations. This could enhance consumer trust and protection against deceptive advertising practices.
Siddharth Chandrashekhar, Advocate and Counsel, Bombay High Court affirms, “This measure underscores the importance of adherence to legal standards, as advertisers are now compelled to explicitly confirm their compliance with directives from the Supreme Court. Such a requirement has the potential to reduce the dissemination of misleading or harmful content, as advertisers are held responsible for ensuring the accuracy and legality of their advertisements.”
He adds that this system allows regulatory bodies to streamline their oversight processes. By placing the initial compliance burden on advertisers, regulatory bodies can prioritise addressing more significant violations, rather than conducting routine checks. This shift in focus can lead to improved regulatory efficiency and more effective enforcement of advertising standards.
“This direction comes against the backdrop of the misleading advertisements and claims made by a renowned brand in India. Further, most of the advertisements are also endorsed by public figures who are capable of significantly influencing the general population. Therefore, the negative effects of such misleading ads can never be contained and a significant portion of the general population stands a chance to fall victim to such misleading ads. India is currently the fifth-largest consumer market in the world and is slated to be the third-largest by 2026. Therefore, such an order by the apex court has been requisite and it shall ensure that the consumer companies are not able to exploit such a large consumer market through their misleading claims and make profits while compromising the health of the general population.” underscores Subhadip Choudhuri, Advocate, Calcutta High Court.
What Will Not Work
“The requirement for a self-declaration certificate for each advertisement will significantly increase compliance costs for advertisers, particularly those in the digital space. This could lead to higher costs for advertisers, which may negatively impact their competitiveness globally,” highlights Nandakumar.
He adds that the sheer volume of digital advertisements, with shorter life spans and frequent updates, poses significant challenges for advertisers in submitting the required information for each ad. This could lead to delays and disruptions in campaigns.
Hamidani underscores, “It could increase administrative burden and costs for advertisers and agencies to comply with the mandate, especially for smaller businesses. There may also be concerns about the effectiveness of self-declaration in preventing unethical advertising behaviour, as it relies on the honesty of advertisers and agencies.”
Ambika Sharma, Founder and MD, Pulp Strategy acknowledges that the directive is beneficial for consumer interests; however, she raised concerns regarding its practical implementation, especially in the realm of digital advertising. She highlighted the logistical challenges, noting that unlike television or radio campaigns, where the launch timing and creatives are limited, digital advertising involves numerous simultaneous creative tests for performance marketing campaigns. This raises the question of how many declarations would be required.
The certification submission process itself requires the representative signing the declaration to provide their mobile number, email address, a detailed description of the product or service, the full script of the ad, a link to the audio/visual element or PDF for print ads and the proposed date of broadcast or publication which can add a lot of time to the process.
Sidhharrth S Kumaar, Founder and CMO, NumroVani notes, "The 'MIB self-declaration' is an effort with pious intent and noble vision at the core, being implemented in a hurry. The current hotch-potch implementation of this is not going to help anyone and it is going to be detrimental for the same. A significant amount of advertising in the modern-day day fast-moving digital world is very time-sensitive and adding an unpredictable layer of bureaucracy will over complicate things for many and the element of surprise to competitive advantage and time sensitivity will get lost.
Niki Mehra Madan, Fashion Influencer, calls the mandate “cumbersome”. She outlines that with the huge number of influencer ads that are posted in one single day, the number of paper trails that this mandate demands will be too much for even the website to handle. She expects glitches, website crashing and increased man-hours by the influencer reps and agencies.
She adds, “Influencers create branded content based on guidelines that the brand sends. So even if we submit the declaration saying we will not promote any false claims etc, this would have been much more in the right direction if this declaration was asked of the brand. Because in the end, it’s the brand’s guidelines we are following. This would have been easier on the agencies as well since when a brand and agency is locking a campaign, they anyway have paperwork involved. Adding one more wouldn’t cause administrative discomfort while making sure the brand that forwards the guidelines based on which all ads are created, adheres to the said mandate.”
Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director, Alpha Zegus asserts that for talent agencies that work on micro and nano creator campaigns, the new mandate would cause a logistical nightmare.
Aggarwal adds, “For campaigns that have more than 50-100 creators involved, this would require paperwork being filled day and night and hence the requirement for a dedicated team to manage this paperwork. Plus, the nuances of every influencer campaign are very different, which could end up consuming more time to fill in the details. There needs to be a more simplified way to manage this.”
