ASCI gets Sony Pictures' Rohit Gupta as its new Chairman

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) announced Rohit Gupta, President, Sony Pictures Networks as the new Chairman of the Board of Governors at its 33rd annual general meeting.

Subhash Kamath, Managing Partner, BBH Communications India was elected the Vice-Chairman and Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands, was re-appointed as Honorary Treasurer.

Gupta has spent over 30 years in the industry holding key leadership positions across consumer, media and entertainment industries.

Members of the Board of Governors include; Girish Agarwal (Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group), Vikas Agnihotri (Director Sales, Google India), Prasun Basu (President – South Asia, Nielsen (India)), Harish Bhat (Director, Tata Global Beverages), Madhusudan Gopalan (CEO, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care), Sandeep Kohli (Executive Director & Vice President, Personal Care Hindustan Unilever), Prof SK Palekar (Adjunct Professor & Advisor, Executive Education Institute of Management Technology), NS  Rajan (Managing Director, Ketchum Sampark), Abanti Sankaranarayanan (Former Vice Chairperson, CIABC), D Shivakumar (Group Executive President, Aditya Birla Management Corporation), Umesh Shrikhande (CEO, Taproot India Comm.), KV Sridhar (Founder & Chief Creative Officer (Director), Hyper Collective Creative Technologies), Sivakumar Sundaram (President Revenue, Bennett Coleman & Co.).

Recalling his year at ASCI, the outgoing Chairman D Shivakumar said “ASCI is a voluntary job and a board led organisation. When I set out last year as the Chairman I had three objectives laid out. The first was to increase our membership base, the second to go digital and third to create awareness among consumers. Now thanks to the MIB directive our awareness has increased immensely, our WhatsApp number has seen a 3X increase in daily messages. We have increased our member base by 10%, our new members representing e-commerce, food and beverage, automotive sectors joining ASCI. ASCI’s digital marketing campaigns would further boost awareness as well as compliance. I wish Rohit and the board the best for the year ahead.”

The incoming Chairman, Gupta said, “With the inclusion of the internet into our everyday life and the constant evolution in the digital space, I feel that synchronising ASCI’s efforts in the digital space will be our key focus for the year. The Council has covered a lot of ground in addressing the need for self-regulation in the digital medium and work is progressing rapidly to address that need. Additionally, we will continue our efforts to strengthen relationships with stakeholders in the year ahead.”

The independent Consumer Complaints Council met 44 times during the year and deliberated on complaints pertaining to 2898 advertisements. Of these, 732 advertisements were promptly withdrawn as soon as the advertiser received communication from ASCI. Complaints were upheld against 1486 advertisements whilst complaints against 475 advertisements were not upheld. 205 advertisements were found to be, prima facie, in violation of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (DMR) Act or The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules (Schedule J) and were promptly escalated to the concerned regulator for immediate attention. In all, 937 advertisements were dealt with immediately through the Informal Resolution (IR) process and escalation to regulators, hence providing speedy redressal of complaints and making ASCI’s process more efficient.

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