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Broadcast networks have been in the crosshairs of the moral, and even the actual, police for decades, for the alleged crime of airing content which offends people’s sensibilities, for legal, moral, religious, or a sheaf of other reasons. This vulnerability can impose serious costs upon a broadcaster. In India, for instance, content that falls foul of the code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, could in extremis result in a broadcast channel losing its licence.

As early as the 1950s, broadcaster networks in the United States, recognising the perils of airing offensive content, started putting in place a system of checks and balances to catch offensive content before it was aired. Since then, Broadcast Standards &amp; Practices (BS&amp;P), the formal term for this activity, has been an indispensable unit in every network of consequence.

In India, the credit for introducing a formal BS&amp;P process into broadcasting goes to STAR. Soon after launch in the early 1990s, STAR used templates, codes and processes, substantially adopted from FOX Networks in the US, to build out India’s first BS&amp;P code and team. The idea was embraced, more or less across the board, within just a few years, and is nearly ubiquitous across broadcast networks today.

<strong>The slip through every checkpoint
</strong>

Last week, the communications profession has been in a lather, about the hideously offensive advertising campaign by a deodorant brand, which appeared to actively promote rape culture. What has left everyone perplexed is how such an egregiously offensive advertisement was able to slip through every checkpoint, in its long journey from script to airing. Right-thinking broadcasters would readily agree that one or more BS&amp;P team in one or more networks failed abysmally to do its job.

There was nothing subtle in the story; even a Standards &amp; Practices (S&amp;P) novice would have spotted, and stopped it. What might explain the lapse? BS&amp;P occupies an unenviable position. The two departments with which it has the highest interaction, content and advertising sales, see it as prissy and meddlesome, getting in the way of exciting content or exciting revenue opportunities. Broadcast organisations have evolved structural solutions to mitigate the internecine strife which this often engenders. An internal system of dispute escalation, reaching top management, ensures that a fair and transparent process resolves tangles and obviates crises before they arise.

<strong>What could prejudice or weaken the BS&amp;P system?
</strong>

Audiences can be fickle. Content producers work tirelessly to bring them in, and keep them loyal. When they begin to fade away, though, content makers begin to get desperate, and their worst instincts: of vulgarity, salaciousness, gratuitous violence; using sensation and dopamine jolts to hang on to the audience, come to the fore.

Even those senior authorities, tasked with ensuring that S&amp;P is observed in letter and spirit, are at this point, desperate enough to look the other way.

Advertising sales straddles the inside and outside worlds for a broadcaster. It must canvass clients and agencies to generate ROs, release orders, for advertising time. And ensure that campaigns which they fought hard to book, are aired on time and in full on their channels. These two activities: creating content which builds and retains audiences, and selling media time, which monetises them, become the critical bookends which keep the network alive and healthy. Sometimes, when crises loom, the S&amp;P conscience keeper is an easy sacrifice in a climate of desperation.

<strong>Re-examine the process
</strong>

It is not this writer’s case that, in the current instance, events unfolded exactly per the scenarios we just looked at. Lapses of reason can happen even with the soundest systems and highest standards of rectitude. However, if, and when, they do happen, an opportunity to re-examine the BS&amp;P process presents itself. Importantly, this must involve a no-holds-barred examination of the internal escalation ladder. The last stop of this process is usually a C-suite occupant, ideally with minimal involvement with either content or ad sales, the CFO for instance, or the General Counsel. The latter has obvious advantages, having a sound understanding of the legal and statutory framework which governs the business. Formally, or at least informally, the business head or CEO is, in this as in all other issues, the final port of call.

It is imperative that all these authorities have high familiarity with applicable codes, and how to apply them. In much the same way as businesses now mandatorily train and retrain all employees on topics Diversity &amp; Inclusion, Sexual Harassment or Safety, Health &amp; Environment, S&amp;P training ought to become a mandatory feature for everyone involved in the two operating functions, and the entire escalation matrix.

This would be a good time for industry bodies like NBDA and IBDF to stand up and emphatically recommit themselves, on behalf of all their member broadcasters, to S&amp;P compliance, in letter and spirit. In passing, some further unsolicited advice, this time for advertisers. Large consumer businesses are now creating brand communication content, spanning a wide range of legacy and digital media, at a furious pace. If S&amp;P provides a well-tested, generally reliable, mechanism for keeping broadcast content on the level, it is a ready-made process waiting for adoption in new use cases. We may have arrived at the moment where AS&amp;P- Advertiser Standards &amp; Practices, could become a thing. And maybe, ASCI - the Advertising Standards Councl of India, could help make it happen.

Layer'r Shot debacle: Industry bodies should push for S&P compliance, in letter and spirit

Layer’r Shot, the deodorant brand from Adjavis Venture Limited, has been pulled up after a user on micro-blogging platform Twitter called out its latest campaign for being sexist, questionable and disrespectful towards women.

"There have to be some regulations for ads man. That Shot deo ad is nothing short of disgusting actually. Even though I knew it was an ad and it wouldn't happen. The fear for a second I felt was real. Imagine making an ad on the fears of millions of women! WTF!," the user wrote.

Can't find the ad online but here it is, apparently being played during the match. I didn't see it till @hitchwriter showed it to me

Who are the people making these ads really?

— Permanently Exhausted Pigeon (@monikamanchanda) June 3, 2022
"Can't find the ad online but here it is, apparently being played during the match. I didn't see it till @hitchwriter showed it to me Who are the people making these ads really?," the user added.

The 30-second feature features a bunch of teenagers walking into a room where a young couple was there. They make suggestive remarks which imply scoring sexual favours from the woman in question.

The ad has opened a can of worms as users on Twitter started posting about the other ads done by the brand previously as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">One more <a href="https://t.co/6oYQkv49QN">https://t.co/6oYQkv49QN</a></p>
— Ris...? (@RishitaPrusty_) <a href="https://twitter.com/RishitaPrusty_/status/1532633304737796097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

One of the users also called the company's founder Devendra N Patel for approving such objectionable ads.

"Found it horribly wrong and uneasy to watch. It’s sickening, actually. There are more in the series. @ascionline please intervene," tweeted another user.

The advertising regulator promptly took to Twitter to respond to the request and stated, "Thank you for tagging us. The ad is in serious breach of the ASCI Code and is against public interest. We have taken immediate action and notified the advertiser to suspend the ad, pending investigation."

Speaking to Storyboard18, Manisha Kapoor, CEO &amp; secretary general, ASCI said that this ad has been processed under suspended pending investigation. (SPI).

"This is used in exceptional circumstances, when it appears prima facie that an advertisement is in serious breach of the ASCI Code and its continued transmission on/through/by any medium causes or has the effect of causing public harm and/or injury or its continuation is against public interest. ASCI has, pending investigation, forthwith directed the advertiser/the advertising agency/the media buying agency and the media concerned to suspend the advertisement. The advertiser has already been written to asking for immediate suspension of the said ad," she noted.

Often synonymous with sexist advertising, male grooming category, dominated by deodorants, has been accused of creating highly sexist, objectionable and stereotypical advertising.

Brands such as Wild Stone, Addiction Deo, Set Wet Zatak (Paras Pharma), Denver Deo and Axe (Unilever) commercials have been called out for being sexist.

The I&amp;B Ministry has also taken cognizance of such advertising and asked the regulator to intervene.

Over the years, the deo brands have started taking baby steps away from their sexist ad legacies, to talk about equality and respect. Axe, which has once relied heavily on ads which showed how Axe made men wildly popular among women, is changing the way it pushes the brand to consumers, adding a larger purpose.

However, there have been occasional bad apples who continue to stick to sexist titillating advertising. Stuck perhaps in old industry beliefs like "sex sells".

An earlier version of this story attributed the ad to Triton Communications. Triton Communications did not make this ad, and the copy has been edited to reflect this. We regret the error.

LAYERR SHOT