Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is strengthening its initiatives to ensure faster action against advertisements that violate its code.
The advertisements watchdog said through National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), it has started tracking even those advertisements, in print and television nationally, against which complaints are upheld. “If they continue to re-appear, without removing or changing objectionable portions of the ad, ASCI will report these advertisements to the relevant statutory authorities for action according to the law of the land,” it said in a statement.
Also, to speed up decision-making and handle multi-fold increase in complaints due to NAMS, it has introduced an additional Consumer Complaint Council, whose meetings will be held every week instead of every fortnight. “This will further reduce the average complaint adjudication time,” ASCI said.
The self-regulatory body has also appointed Shweta Purandare as Chief Operations Officer to drive the investigation of complaints.