The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) was established in 1985. ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory organisation comprising members from marketing, creative, media, and allied companies in India. Since its inception, ASCI has been committed to protecting Indian consumers’ interests through self-regulation in advertising.
Creativity thrives in a world of free speech. However, with great freedom comes great responsibility. ASCI ensures that advertising follows the four basic codes of ethical advertising:
Honesty: to ensure that the claims being made in an ad are true.
Decency: to ensure that advertising is not offensive to generally accepted norms of public decency
Non-Harmful: to safeguard against advertising situations/ products regarded as harmful/hazardous to society
Fair in competition: to ensure that ads are not unfair/derogatory towards competition.
Consumers or organisations that find any ads violating these four codes can register their objections with ASCI.