...these and other questions on self-regulation & the boundaries of creative expression in advertising take centre-stage at a mega festival being organized by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) in association with exchange4media in Mumbai on March 20, 2015
By Team IMPACT
With great creative power comes great responsibility. This is something that is relevant not only for advertising, but any form of creative expression that impacts popular culture.
In India, advertisements have to adhere to a code of self-regulation prescribed by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which is committed to ensuring protection of the interests of consumers. exchange4media has partnered ASCI to present a forum of discussion and debate named ‘Creativity, For Goodness’ Sake!’ in Mumbai on March 20, 2015.
The attempt is to create an engagement platform, not just another event or seminar. Therefore, the forum will uphold creativity that is exciting and memorable, but with a conscience, based on the premise that there is a critical need to create awareness, belief and advocacy for the very concept of self-regulation in advertising.
THE speakers
·Marc Mathieu, Global Senior Vice President, Marketing at Unilever. He currently oversees Unilever's global corporate branding effort; marketing training, including the Unilever Marketing Academy; marketing services; agency relations; and return on marketing investment.
·Sir John Hegarty, Founder, Creative, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) began his career with Cramer Saatchi in 1967, and was a founding share-holder when it became Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1973, he co-founded TBWA, and then in 1982 started Bartle Bogle Hegarty. He was knighted in 2007, won the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding achievement and has been admitted to the US One Show Advertising Hall of Fame. His first book, Hegarty on Advertising – Turning Intelligence into Magic, was published in 2011. He is currently working on his second.
·Shantanu Khosla, MD, P&G India, has been with P&G since 1983. He has over the period gained experience of overseeing P&G’s international businesses in UK, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore too. He leads all three P&G companies in India - Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd (PGHP), Gillette India Ltd, and Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd (PGHH).
·Film-maker Rajkumar Hirani, acclaimed director, screenwriter and editor of box-office successes like Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006), 3 Idiots (2009) and PK (2014). He is known for his clean but highly creative films.
THE session chairs
Sam Balsara, Chairman & MD, Madison World; Sunil Lulla, CMD, Grey Group India and Anuradha SenGupta, journalist, will be the session chairs for some of the speaker sessions.
The debate
At the centre of the festival will be a debate on the parameters of creative expression in advertising with participants drawn from the top echelons of the creative industry, advertisers and consumer activist space. The debate will take up the conflict between boundless creativity and ethical limits, and tackle the issue of self-regulation and creative responsibility from various angles.
Besides a creative guru, the debate will see arguments put forth by Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Group, known as one of the best thinkers in the advertising business. An IIM-Ahmedabad graduate, he earlier served as President of McCann-Erickson. Having spent 21 years in advertising, he is a veteran in the domain and has been involved in strategically building many key brands.
Paritosh Joshi, Director, Provocateur Advisory chairs the technical committee for the Indian Readership Survey and is a member of the technical committee for the Broadcast Audience Research Council. He is also on the board of the Media Research Users' Council. He was the CEO of STAR CJ Network India.
Anish Trivedi, novelist and former investment banker, will moderate the debate.
