Rajiv Dube is the new Chairman of ASCI

Mumbai: Rajiv Dube, director, group corporate services, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd, has been unanimously elected chairman of the board of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

A votary of self-regulation in the advertising, Dube has been a member of the board of governors of ASCI for five years.

G. Krishnan, executive director & CEO - TV Today Network ltd., was elected vice-chairman; and Vikram Sakhuja, CEO-South Asia, Group M Media India, was re-appointed as the treasurer.

The other members of the new board of governors are:

• Advertisers: Narendra Ambwani (Johnson & Johnson), Shantanu Khosla (Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care), Gopal Vittal (Hindustan Unilever)
  
• Media: Bhaskar Das (Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.), Vikram Kaushik (Tata Sky Ltd.), I. Venkat (Eenadu)
  
• Advertising Agencies: Subhash Kamath (BBH Comms India), Arvind Sharma (Leo Burnett), Srinivasan Swamy (R.K. Swamy BBDO)
  
• Allied Professions: Dilip Cherian (Perfect Relations), Dhananjay Keskar (IBS), Pranesh Misra (Brandscapes Consultancy P. Ltd.), Partha Rakshit (Partha Rakshit Associates).

During 2009-10, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) met 12 times and deliberated on complaints against 159 advertisements. Of these, 87 complaints were upheld, while 72 were not upheld. In 71 cases, the ads have been withdrawn or modified appropriately as per the CCC's decisions resulting in an 82 per cent compliance rate.

Dhananjay Keskar, director, IBS and the outgoing chairman of ASCI said, that during 2009-10 the council's website was upgraded to to add a to-free number, which "had simplified the process of lodging a complaint about an advertisement with ASCI."

Keskar said, "Our efforts are appreciated by the Word Federation of advertisers who have agreed fund ASCI over a period of next threre years to increase awareness of ASCI and to carry out market research.

Advertising Standards Council of India is a self regulatory voluntary organisation of the advertising industry. The Role and Functioning of the ASCI & its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) is in dealing with Complaints received from Consumers and Industry, against Advertisements which are considered as False, Misleading, Indecent, Illegal, leading to Unsafe practices, or Unfair to competition, and consequently in contravention of the ASCI Code for Self-Regulation in Advertising.