The Supreme Court's recent self-declaration mandate aimed at curbing misleading advertising is raising concerns within the marketing community. Marketers across sectors are confused about the specifics of the mandate. So much so, that this lack of clarity is causing some to re-evaluate their advertising budgets for the upcoming festive season.

According to media planners, brands that had already planned their advertising campaigns or digital strategy for the next couple of months are considering pulling back from spending immediately and putting the ads on hold for a while.

Stakeholders are calling for clearer guidelines on the self-declaration certification from the Supreme Court to ensure effective implementation and minimise disruption to festive season AdEx.

An FMCG marketer, relatively well versed with the situation, told e4m, “I have had constant messages from my peers in the industry who either want to understand the nitty-gritty of this mandate, or who are just freaking out about complying with the same in such a short time. Marketers midway through their festive spending plans are now back at the drawing board stage.”

The Advertising Standards Council of India also issued an advisory recently, asking advertisers and broadcasters to refrain from releasing advertisements without a self-declaration certificate (SDC) between June 18 and July 9, until the Supreme Court provides clarity.

Additionally, other industry bodies like FICCI, ISA, INS, IBDF and IAMAI, have also been engaged in decoding the SDC issue in the past week. The ISA even sent a letter to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting requesting to postpone the implementation of the mandate.

Expressing his problems with the mandate, a CMO from the BFSI sector said that this news came as a blow to the marketing fraternity, and has risen to be the most prioritised conversation amongst marketers. “There are campaigns which have been in the works for some, since quite a while, and these aren’t small campaigns, these are quite high decibel campaigns that have required months of work already,” he mentioned.

According to him, decisions like holding ads - till there is enough clarity - disrupts the quarterly plans for the company. “On top of that, you cannot be too hasty either to roll out these campaigns, because we don’t know about how the Ministry is going to track the violations. Nobody wants to get into the legalities,” he said.

Some other sources from the industry suggest that a few brands that have not yet invested heavily for the June quarter, are going to go into an observation mode for a month or two.

“The September quarter already has the festive season beginning, but I feel if the MIB is not able to give clarity before July or August, this festive season might see a died down advertising spend from brands,” a media planner told exchange4media. 

Another industry expert agreed that brands start to plan for the festive season advertising right around this period, and festive season campaigns usually see high spending from big advertisers. “With not much clarity about this issue, spending on festive campaigns might be perceived as a risk by brands. While right now there is not much conversation centric to the festive season, I foresee a lesser inclination to spend this year if things don’t change soon,” the person added.

Marketers across brands feel that the process is set to get very cumbersome going forward, and will require more manpower and man-hours. Another senior marketer highlighted that the intent for rolling this mandate out is to ensure that what is being promoted, is what is actual reality.

However, he added that several categories already follow protocols to ensure their ads are not misleading. “For example, in the insurance category, the ads are vetted by the IRDAI and they make sure the claims are in line,” he said. So, the point of revisiting the same efforts with another set of paper trails, seems to go beyond understanding amidst marketers at this stage.

The response to ISA’s queries on asset confidentiality, platform issues, validity, updates and edits etc., is awaited, and marketers are looking forward to the same, in order to determine how their ad budgets will change in the next few months.

For more updates, be socially connected with us on
Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Google News