ASCI appoints I Venkat as chairman

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has elected I Venkat, director, Eenadu, as the chairman of the board of ASCI. As a member of the Board of Governors for the last five years, Venkat has provided support to self-regulation in the advertising movement.

Arvind Sharma, chairman -- India Sub-Continent, Leo Burnett, has been elected as vice-chairman, and Vikram Sakhuja, chief executive officer -- South Asia, GroupM Media India, has been re-appointed as the honorary treasurer.

In the media segment, ASCI has inducted Rajan Anandan, vice-president for sales and operations, Google India, and Benoy Roychowdhury, executive director, HT Media.

Among advertising agencies, the council has included Subhash Kamath, managing partner, BBH Communications India, and Srinivasan Swamy, managing director and chief executive officer, R K Swamy BBDO.

Among allied professions, the body has appointed Dilip Cherian, founder partner, Perfect Relations, Dhananjay Keskar, director, IBS Pune, Pranesh Misra chairman and managing director, Brandscapes Consultancy, and Partha Rakshit, Partha Rakshit Associates.

In an official communique, I Venkat says, "It is my honour to be elected as the Chairman of an organisation which has been providing remarkable service to the Indian masses and the ad industry by effectively self-regulating advertising content over the past 26 years. With the support of the ASCI Board and the CCC, I will endeavour to further improve the awareness and usage of ASCI."

According to Dube, it was a privilege to have served as the chairman of ASCI. "I step down from the position with the satisfaction of a progressive year on self-regulation in advertising behind me, for which I would like to thank all who supported, strengthening the movement further," says he.

During the year 2010-11, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) met 12 times and considered 777 complaints against 190 advertisements. Of these, complaints against 104 ads were upheld, while 80 were not upheld, and six were considered non-issues. In 84 cases, the complaint upheld ads have been voluntarily withdrawn or modified as per the CCC's decisions, resulting in over 80 per cent compliance rate.

For the record, ASCI is a self-regulatory voluntary organisation of the advertising industry. The role of ASCI and its CCC is dealing with complaints received from consumers and industry against advertisements which are considered false, misleading, indecent, illegal, leading to unsafe practices, or unfair to competition, and consequently in contravention of the ASCI Code for self-regulation in advertising.