Provocative advertisements should be checked by advertising body
Recently, information and broadcasting ministry have castigated the Advertising Standards Council of India for its apparent failure in pulling up a clutch of deodorant firms that are flagrantly..
THOUGH IT comes late, but as they say it's never too late to do something. Time would not have been appropriate than this, when we are debating to give social equality to women to raise a voice against portraying feminine as a piece of meat on television. 
However, it’s not for the first time that I&B have come down on deodorant companies. In the past, several deodorant companies and channels airing their advertisements, were pulled up, both by ASCI and the I&B ministry. In 2009, Wild Stone, a product of McNroe Chemicals, was pulled up by the ASCI for portraying women in poor light. Similar was the case for Axe 'Dark Temptation' commercial where ASCI directed the advertiser to re-edit the commercial removing certain objectionable shots. Now, the question arises, are only deodorant companies are violating advertising norms or even other industries are equally involved in it. For instance, an advertisement of popular cement company is being aired on television in which a captivating girl in barely two piece of swim suit popping out of sea water. Now, is there any relevance between a girl in two piece swim suit and strength of cement? Not so long ago, viewing television was a family activity, where entire family member sits together and watch entertainment box. But now, it has become incongruous for all family members to sit in a same room and watch TV programs as you will find an explicit advertisement or double meaning double repeatedly being telecast after every 10 to 20 minutes. Not only advertisement, there are few comedy programs currently being aired on private channel where stand up comedians uses explicit and double meaning dialogue quite often. Surprisingly, renowned personalities of entertainment industry, who are been inducted in such shows as panel judges, left no chance to applaud these artists on each of their double meaning dialogues. Comedy programs are supposed to be a family entertainer show but could some one explain how long this would remain a family entertainer if things would go on like this. Now question arises do such provoking ads really make any impact? I doubt it! And even if they made an impact and people are tempted to buy the product after viewing such type of so-called “sexy ads”, then it should immediately be made mandatory for all advertisingt agencies to follow strict regime to maintain decency while producing an advertising campaign. It’s agreed, that in today’s time of stiff competition in the corporate world, it's sometime required to cross the edge of decency to promote a product. For example, in an advertisment of a condom, you just can’t expect Adam and Eve sitting on a dining table and promoting the brand. For such product, there is certainly a demand for slightly more explicit presentation. If explicit and provocative, the advertisement should be telecast only after 11 pm. Furthermore, an instant requirement is to frame a stringent law framework to guard advertisement agencies, which, generally, in order to break the clutter, use suggestive advertisements often lifted from overseas TV commercials. Since, the laws are not strong enough; therefore, both advertisers and broadcasters take their chances with these advertisements for a limited duration till they are pulled up.
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