Celebrities have a substantial amount of influence on the audiences and are majorly responsible for portraying a positive outlook of the brand to increase its sale as the celebrity’s opinion about a brand is perceived to be a personal opinion of that celebrity.
Acknowledging this influence and credibility of celebrities among consumers, ASCI has taken a positive step in this direction by issuing guidelines for ‘Celebrities In Advertising’.
These Guidelines are developed in order to ensure that the Advertiser is guided to produce and release appropriate advertisements featuring celebrities in it. It also creates a responsibility to ensure that advertisements featuring celebrities need to strictly ensure that claims made in it are not misleading, false or unsubstantiated; so as not to harm the interests of the consumers, especially for products or services which can cause serious financial loss and physical harm.
In short, Advertisements featuring Celebrities* or involving Celebrity Endorsements would be subject to the following Guidelines:
- All advertisements featuring Celebrities should ensure that it does not violate any of the ASCI code in letter and spirit. Celebrities are expected to have adequate knowledge of these Codes and it is the duty of the Advertiser and the Agency to make sure that the Celebrity they wish to engage with is made aware of them.
- Testimonials, endorsements or representations of opinions or preference of Celebrities must reflect genuine, reasonably current opinion of the individual(s) making such representations, and must be based upon adequate information about or experience with the product or service being advertised.
- Celebrity should do due diligence to ensure that all description, claims and comparisons made in the advertisements they appear in or endorse are capable of being objectively ascertained and capable of substantiation and should not mislead or appear deceptive.
- Celebrities should not participate in any advertisement of a product or treatment or remedy that is prohibited for advertising under:
- The Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954 as updated from time to time; or
- The Drugs & Cosmetic Act 1940 and Rules 1945: (Schedule J) as updated from time to time.
- Celebrities should not participate in any advertisements for products which, by law, require a health warning such as “………….. is injurious to health” in their advertising or packaging.
- If the Celebrity either directly or through the concerned Advertiser/Agency chooses to seek Advertising Advice from ASCI on whether the advertisement potentially violates any provisions of the ASCI code or not and if the Advertisement is developed fully following the Advertising Advice provided by the ASCI, then the Celebrity would be considered as having completed due diligence. However, ASCI’s Advertising Advice will not be construed as pre-clearance of the Advertisement.
For the purposes of these guidelines, the word ‘celebrity’ has been defined to include famous and well-known people who are from the field of Entertainment and Sports and would also include other famous and well-known personalities like Doctors, Authors, Activists, Educationists, etc. who get compensated Rs. 20 lakhs or above for appearing in a single advertisement or a campaign or per year, whichever is more AND / OR is listed in top 100 celebrities as per any one of the current and immediate past list of Forbes or the Times or Celebrity track report of Hansa Research or any such list which is intended to be indicative and not exhaustive.
Disclaimer: Views / opinions expressed in present update are for explanatory / update purposes only and which cannot be quoted in any legal proceedings and will have no legal purpose. Further, same may vary from time to time and case to case. For any clarification and further information, you may contact us at mehta@mehtaip.com.
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