Mumbai OOH tragedy fuels demands for stricter advertising regulations

A 14,400 square foot illegal billboard collapsed in Mumbai on Monday after the city witnessed thunderstorms and gusty winds. The metal structure fell on and crushed a petrol station, claiming the lives of at least 16 people and injuring 74 others. This has raised several concerns around the OOH industry and its internal practices.

According to media reports, Mumbai Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde, 51, the director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd which had the contract for the hoarding on a 10-year lease, as the hoarding was illegal. The maximum size allowed for hoardings is 40 x 40 feet while the hoarding in question was 100 feet tall.

Reports also suggest that there were 21 instances in the past where Bhinde was fined under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act for putting up banners without permission. In fact the GRP (Government Railway Police) said that it had received a BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) letter last week recommending action against the advertiser on the removal of the hoarding based on the complaints in connection with the alleged drying up of trees alongside the road. Unfortunately, before any action was taken, tragedy struck.

However, given the situation surrounding the compliance of OOH guidelines, experts believe this was a tragedy waiting to unfold. According to the BMC there are 1,025 hoardings in the city, which is hard to believe given the number of billboards and hoardings we see around everyday.

While something of this scale has not happened before, this is not a one-off incident. Such tragedies have been reported across  the country.

Last June, three people lost their lives in Coimbatore after a giant steel hoarding they were erecting collapsed. In April 2023, Pimpri-Chinchwad had witnessed a hoarding collapse accident in which five people were killed and three others were injured. In September 2019, a 23-year-old IT employee was crushed to death in Chennai after an illegally erected banner fell on her while she was riding her two-wheeler.

The OOH media brings in Rs 41.6 billion and is expected to exceed Rs 45 billion in 2024 and reach revenues of Rs 54.3 billion by 2026 says a FICCI EY report. It is time for the industry to come together and call for stricter guidelines as well as adhere to self-regulation, say industry leaders.

“This incident could have been easily avoided had there been stricter vigilance on illegal sites. Regulations are in place, but keeping a vigil on illegal sites is a must, and such structures should be removed immediately, says Dipankar Sanyal, CEO, Platinum Outdoor and MRP.

He says self-regulation is the need of the hour. “Every other media does it, and OOH is no different. OOH associations in their regional or national capacity should make sure that every member follows the regulations as laid down by individual municipal corporations. Monday's incident makes it obligatory on the part of the associations to make their stance stricter, as it affects the business in its entirety and not just restricted to Mumbai or any city where such an incident occurs,” adds Sanyal.

Amarjeet Singh Hudda, COO at Laqshya Group says, stricter regulations regarding hoarding structures are indeed crucial in preventing incidents like this. When structures are illegally made or fail to comply with safety guidelines, the risk of accidents increases significantly. Implementation and enforcement of these regulations are vital to ensure public safety and prevent such unfortunate incidents.

Rachana Lokhande, partner at OOH Capital notes that OOH guidelines differ from state to state. “All states have guidelines for sizes, distances from other boards, distance from the road, technical specifications on the structure to be built and it is designed taking into consideration all the factors and extreme conditions for that city/state. The process might vary depending on each State policy. But it does include involvement of structural engineers to ensure that any infrastructure built within the city is safe for the citizens.”

What else can be done

As per the BMC website, “Permission for display of advertisement hoardings by means of surface or structure erected on ground or any portion of a roof of a building or on/above the parapet, with characters, letters or illustrations applied thereto and displayed in any manner, for purpose of advertisement or giving information is very much an essential part of business today. The provisions relating to such display of advertisements are covered under and regulated by section 328 and section 328 A of MMC act 1888.”

Junaid Shaikh, managing director at Roshan Space Brandcom says, people need to look at OOH as a part of civic planning and not merely an advertising space. He says, the current regulations in place for outdoor advertising are ancient and need to be relooked at from a modern lens. Shaikh advocates for more attention to be paid towards how these guidelines are being implemented in the first place.

“Policies need to be more dynamic and new. Our current policies are backdated. They don't match global standards. From a modern perspective, OOH is a part of the beautification and smart city program. It has to complement the city,” he says.

He compares the OOH industry to the construction industry and says that just like the new age constructions that can withstand storms and earthquakes, hurricanes, etc, and that is because of the regularly revised regulations, those similar standards need to be adhered in OOH policies too.

Sheikh of Roshan Space further states that regulators need to pay attention to ways of decluttering OOH. He claims that the previous policy had a minimum distance criteria between 2 billboards as 100 meters. The new policy has reduced it to 70 meters, and no standard format, hence encouraging more clutter. “Reduction and decluttering is extremely important to maintain standards. If there is way too much supply, obviously, quality is still going to take a backstage.”

He explains that one way to do that is to provide longer contracts to media houses which can ensure they adhere to better quality standards. “Today, they give contracts for 3-5 years, in order to meet the costs, many players compromise on quality which absolutely should not be the case.”

He highlights that despite the callous attitude of a few players in the industry, all their OOH construction is new age and are able to withstand 160-170 kilometers per hour of wind speed and pay special attention to safety.

He further explains that the sizes of the hoardings are not the issue and compared the OOH environment in cities like New York’s Times Square and Dubai. “It is not the size that needs to be relooked at but rather, it needs to be engineered and it needs to be monitored to those international standards,” he adds.

What role can advertisers play?

While the hoarding that collapsed on Monday in Mumbai did not have an active advertiser, an old OOH ad from the same site has been going viral on the internet. Real estate company Ajmera Group reacted after an old post featuring its advertisement on the collapsed hoarding became viral and said it had rented the advertisement space for five days in April last year and that it does not own or manage the space. However, in April 2023, the company had shared the ad on LinkedIn claiming that it was “Asia's largest hoarding at Ghatkopar”.

“The hardwork and dedication of our team has paid off! What an incredible feeling to be a part of the Guinness World Record. This is a proud moment for everyone at Ajmera Group,” the company had written. This begs the question whether advertisers also need to be more responsible while choosing a hoarding for advertising?

Dr. Kushal Sanghvi, business mentor at National HRD Network affirms that advertisers need to do their due diligence and ask for all the right information, proof and papers regarding the space where their ads are displayed.

“Until such an incident doesn’t happen, we don’t realise that the system isn’t working. Unfortunately OOH has never been regulated as such, there are a lot of people who are private owners of these sites who work in tandem with larger organisations. We need to figure out a way to make people answerable. If there was a way to find out if the advertiser knew whether the site is illegal or legal, those measures need to be put in place,” he says.

Lokhande of OOH Capital also suggests that it is important for advertisers who work directly with media owners to conduct due diligence. She says large advertisers should have their agencies do the same.

(With inputs provided by Benita Chacko)