The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has unveiled the ASCI Academy, an initiative poised to amplify the advertising industry’s capacity to create more responsible and progressive advertising campaigns. Department of Consumer Affairs will closely work with the academy said Rohit Kumar Singh, the department secretary.
As per reports, Singh said, “We do four things – first is inflation management, especially in terms of commodities; the second is protecting the interests of consumers. We assure quantity and quality, which is also our third aspect to look after.”
“When we talk of ease of doing business, especially what we are discussing today (advertising), there is always a potential of conflict between facilitating something and protecting the rights of consumers. We have to strike a balance. We don’t want you to give up your creativity, we want you to draw a line. We love creativity but will keep annoying you if you cross the line,” he said.
“The number of complaints with regards to e-commerce has increased 5-fold in the last 5 years. From 8% now it has grown to 40%. Everybody is always ready to take consumers for a ride, which is why it is more important to protect consumer rights. During COVID, India’s two largest companies said that by using our paint, there would be no COVID, Who were they fooling?,” he added.
In an earlier interview with Storyboard18, Singh had mentioned greenwashing and said, “There is a new term called “greenwashing” that many companies are engaging in. We should all be aware of this. Just because a product comes in a recycled box does not necessarily mean it is environmentally friendly.”
He also told Storyboard18 that the department of Consumer Affairs receives around 1 lakh consumer complaints every month, which has doubled from last year. The department is going to incorporate conversational AI to further address these complaints. There is an integrated WhatsApp bot that can easily help consumers register their complaints online therefore improving the interface to make filing a complaint easier.