ASCI announces new initiatives

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced the appointment of Shweta Purandare as chief operations officer (COO). Purandare will lead complaints investigation and monitor the complaint redressal and follow-up procedure. Purandare has more than two decades of experience in FMCG and pharmaceutical industries. Earlier, Purandare was working with a pharmaceutical company for 15 years.

ASCI has also announced that its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) will convene and look into the complaints on a weekly basis (compared to the earlier fortnightly system), given the rise in complaints against print and television advertisements.

Speaking about the new developments, Arvind Sharma, chairman, ASCI, says, "The proactive tracking of all newly released ads in print and TV by NAMS earlier, and now, of all upheld complaint ads and reporting non-compliance to statutory bodies is likely to help substantially in moving towards the goal of eradicating misleading ads." The appointment of a COO will ensure a speedy and effective complaint redressal process, he reiterates.

According to ASCI, the number of complaints to NAMS has increased five-fold. To ensure that complaints are looked into faster, ASCI has decided to have two CCCs, where one will meet on first and third Tuesdays and the other on second and fourth Tuesdays. As a result, the number of complaints processed by CCC may go beyond 1,500, which would be over eight times that of previous two years put together, ASCI claims.