Educational institutes, edtech companies biggest violators of advertising code: ASCI

NEW DELHI: Educational institutes and online education firms remain the single largest violators of advertising code, as per the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Education sector is followed by health care and personal care.

ASCI, India’s advertising regulator, recently released its annual complaints report for April 2021-March 2022 after processing 5,532 ads in 2021-22, a sharp rise by 62% as compared to the previous year. It also processed 7,631 complaints, which is 25% more than the previous year.

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According to the report, 33% of all complaints were from education sector. Followed by personal care and health categories with a complaint share of 11% and 16% respectively. The ASCI has largely received complaints from ed-tech consumers.

Of the total complaints, 48% of the objectionable complaints were published in digital media, 47% in print. The report further added that there was a 41% rise in misleading advertisements featuring celebrities processed as compared to previous year.

It also said that the 94% of overall ads we processed needed some modification.

ASCI -Complaints Insights 2021-22 (Source:ascionline.in)

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“After a year affected by Covid, the Indian advertising industry reached a size of Rs 70,715 crores in 2021 growing at 18.6% versus 2020. The industry is expected to reach Rs 93,119 crores by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of 14.75%,” the ASCI report said.