Ad agencies and advertisers must self-disclose before releasing ads; Anupam Mittal criticizes
In its Order dated May 7, 2024, the Supreme Court directed all advertisers/advertising agencies to submit a ‘Self-Declaration Certificate’ prior to publishing or broadcasting any advertisement. In compliance with the Supreme Court’s order, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has implemented a new feature on the Press Council of India’s portal for print and digital/internet advertisements as well as the Broadcast Seva Portal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) for TV and radio advertisements. The certificate must be submitted via these portals and must be signed by an official advertiser/ad agency representative.
What does the self-declaration entail?
The portal is scheduled to go live on June 4th, 2024. All advertisers and advertising agencies must obtain the Self-Declaration Certificate for any new advertisements that will be released, broadcast, aired, or published on or after June 18, 2024. Two weeks have been set aside as a buffer period to give all parties involved enough time to become acquainted with the self-certification procedure. Self-certification is not currently required for ongoing advertisements.
The purpose of the self-declaration
The purpose of the self-declaration certificate is to attest that the advertisement (i) does not make any deceptive claims, and (ii) conforms to all applicable legal requirements, such as those outlined in the Press Council of India’s Norms of Journalistic Conduct and Rule 7 of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994. For their records, the advertiser must certify that they have uploaded the Self-Declaration Certificate to the appropriate publisher, printer, broadcaster, or electronic media platform. No advertisement will be allowed to air on television, print media, or the internet without a valid Self-Declaration Certificate, per the Supreme Court’s directive.
Ensuring openness, consumer protection, and ethical advertising practices is one step closer to the SC directive. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked all publishers, broadcasters, and advertisers to carefully follow this instruction.
Anupam Mittal slams the self-declaration mandate
The founder and CEO of People Group and Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal, has taken issue with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s requirement that all advertisers and advertising agencies obtain a Self-Declaration Certificate. He went on to X and expressed concern about how digital advertisers who run hundreds of ads per month will adhere to this rule. He added that by increasing costs and slowing down growth, this rule will hurt the sector’s ability to compete globally in the digital space.
This is completely unviable. https://t.co/0iC65sbNew@MIB_India How will digital advertisers who create 100s of creatives a month comply with a directive like that? This will hurt our digital competitiveness globally by increasing costs and slowing us down 🥲
— Anupam Mittal (@AnupamMittal) June 4, 2024
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