PROVIDING CLARITY

The recent I&B ministry clarification on the selfdeclaration of ads has cleared some doubts of advertisers; more clarity will emerge only with time

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

ADVERTISERS ARE BREATHING easy after a clarification from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that the self declaration in advertisements will be restricted to the food and health sectors and needs to be done once a year.

Welcoming the move, Sandeep Goyal, Chairman of ad agency Rediffusion, says the I&B ministry’s amendment, which came on July 3, is sensible and in the right direction. “The earlier requirement (self-declaration for each ad) was going to create a lot of bureaucracy. This yearly declaration for the food and health categories and probable amnesty for others will save a lot of unnecessary work,” he says.

Earlier, the self-declaration rule, which came into effect on June 18, had said that all advertisers and advertising agencies had to obtain a ‘Self-Declaration Certificate’ for ads before they were printed or aired.