BREAKING: Stakeholders meet MIB over SDC; seek clear definitions of food and health sectors
The stakeholders sought clear definitions of the food and health products. Additionally, the stakeholders suggested that the onus on advertisers to submit SDCs to agencies and publishers should not be made mandatory.
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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) convened a meeting with media and advertising industry bodies on July 19, to address and discuss the issue of stakeholders concerning the self-declaration certificates (SDCs) for broadcasting and publishing ads on TV, print, digital, and radio. The stakeholders sought clear definitions of the health and food products as a category. The stakeholders also suggested that the onus on advertisers to send the SDCs with agencies and publishers should not be made mandatory.
"The meeting gathered all the opinions and suggestions on the matter. There were concerns raised about what would comprise of food and health sectors. Stakeholders seek a clear definition of both. Additionally, the mechanism still remains a challenge for the small proprietors who have difficulty in navigating the process," revealed one of the sources present at the meeting.
The top court on July 9th directed the MIB to continue conducting brainstorming sessions with stakeholders on how an implementable mechanism can be achieved. In the interim, the MIB advisory remains in force. The matter has now been listed for July 30.
During the meeting, the stakeholders recommended that the obligations on advertisers' to submit SDCs to agencies and publishers must not be made mandatory. The committee has recommended that the advertisers should get the certificate annually from MIB and should be limited to that.
Read more: BREAKING: SC directs MIB to file affidavit within three weeks with recommendations on SDC
A stakeholder said, “If the advertiser gets the certificate from MIB, we feel there is no requirement from the advertiser to submit it again to the agency or to the publisher. Multiple publishers have several platforms for advertising and this will further complicate the process.”
Another stakeholder said, “We have also recommended that the government must define food as a category as in which products in the food category should obtain SDCs. Similarly, health as a category it is important that the products must be categorized.”
He further said, “If a product gets featured in a film or in a YouTube video gets considered as a promotional feature and further complicates the process. It is important that the MIB should consider the recommendations from the stakeholders while filing an affidavit in the court.”
“We have noticed that the government officials were very receptive towards the recommendations given by the industry bodies.”
The meeting saw representations from various stakeholders including big tech platforms such as Meta, broadcasters, Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), ASCI, among others.
On July 3rd, MIB modified the SDC mandate and restricted the mechanism to only food and health advertisements. Also, the mandate for 'every ad' was changed to the 'annual SDCs'.
A CMO of a large FMCG firm earlier told Storyboard18 that advertisers are seeking more clarity on products and services that fall under food and health, as the latter could also include wellness products and services. There's also more clarity required on publishers' obligations to obtain the SDC.
In the meeting, stakeholders also raised concerns about how awareness is still a challenge for the small proprietors and navigating the SDC mechanism remains an issue for them.
