New Delhi: In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Friday in the Patanjali misleading ads case, the MIB has made these suggestions about the SDCs for the commercials. According to the MIB, these certificates should only be confined to ads in food and health sectors, especially products and services in the area of health. In addition, the MIB opined that only private companies or individual advertisers and not the advertising agencies ought to be the ones to file these SDCs. They were recommended for exemption from this requirement together with start-ups and micro and small enterprises.
This affidavit is a follow-up of a court-ordered stakeholder consultation conducted on 19th July by the Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju. The meeting had representation from the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of Ayush, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, various associations and firms. These comprised students, parents, teachers, school administrators, officials from the Ministry of Education and Science Technology, and any other stakeholders the MIB deemed pertinent to polling.
The MIB has formulated six strategic suggestions that it suggested after consultation in Patanjali. First, it suggested that regarding compliance with media, a single SDC should be all-inclusive for easy compliance. It also prescribed that the two SDC portals that are currently available be grouped together in one in order to have a better running of both and definitely a better experience for the users. The MIB recommended that an SDC could either provide a generic endorsement for all adverts meant for publication in a year or be included in the annual balance sheet.
The July 9 order by the division bench of Kohli and Mehta said after acknowledging the burden that its earlier orders had put on the advertising industry. The court reassured the industry that it was not its desire to put too many impediments on it to hinder its operations.
Also, some other recommendations were never presented to the MIB. These suggestions comprised the prohibition of programmatic ads, content posted by users, online advertisements, and members of the ASCI.
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