The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Monday launched the ASCI Academy to empower current and future industry professionals including influencers and students with a foundational understanding of advertising regulations, ensuring ethical practices from the outset. This is all the more important in today’s digital landscape, characterised by brief campaign durations and a surge in number of advertisers. “While ASCI has always had a strong corrective mechanism, we also wanted to harmonise the dynamic interplay between creativity and responsibility and address the broader consequences of advertising on society at large,” NS Rajan, Chairman, ASCI, said.
The ASCI Academy, he adds, is a big step in this direction which will facilitate a preventive footprint and shape an advertising ecosystem to help the industry to get it right.
He says the academy’s core mission is to cultivate a cohort of advertising professionals dedicated to upholding responsibility in advertising, ultimately upholding consumer trust. “While ASCI has always had a strong corrective mechanism, we also wanted to harmonise the dynamic interplay between creativity and responsibility and address the broader consequences of advertising on society at large. The ASCI Academy is a big step in this direction which will facilitate a preventive footprint and shape an advertising ecosystem to help the industry to get it right,” he said.
He adds that ASCI hopes that the advertising industry engages deeply with the Academy programs to make their teams better trained and educated on the aspects of advertising regulations.
Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, who is part of the ASCI Academy’s Apex Council said that the ministry has always supported self-regulatory mechanisms in the media and entertainment industry. “We hope that the resources and support by the Academy would be extremely useful for the online advertisers and platforms,” he adds.
Rajan says that ASCI has set an ambitious target of reaching 100,000 people in next 3 years. “We have a challenging task but we’ll get there,” Rajan said.
ASCI told reporters that the trigger to think about the academy started 2-3 years ago when the digital footprint had gone through the roof. “The truth about digital advertising is that it stays for a short time. Therefore, the idea of corrective action in the times of digital advertising needs to be relooked at. A lot of times by the time consumer complains to us, the ad is over. The idea really was if we want consumer protection in today’s day and age then it has to start at time before the ad is out. In an ideal world there will be no hard done to advertisers and no complaints from the consumers,” Manisha Kapoor, CEO & Secretary General, ASCI said.
Kapoor adds that ASCI academy aims to train a whole cadre of industry professionals who are going to be a part of the advertising ecosystem in a few years. “When I talk about the industry, I also talk about influencers, how do they know what they’re influencing? We’ve on boarded universities, research organizations, civil society members, etc. and we want the whole ecosystem to come together and collaborate to make more consumer-friendly ads,” she adds.