New Indian Government stresses importance of marketing and free media
At the recently held “Goafest” organized by the Advertising Agencies’ Association in India, the new government’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar highlighted the importance of advertising in today’s world. He stressed the market- and industry- friendly nature of the new government and affirmed that it would champion the freedom of the press and co-operation between media and government.
Javadekar discussed how, in this day and age, not only do good products require good advertising, but ultimately a bad product cannot be saved with good advertising. He applauded Sam Balsara and Madison World for the successful campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that won the 2014 Indian general elections and praised the advertising fraternity as highly creative.
He asked for the advertising community’s co-operation for nation-building. Stressing on the importance of messaging, Javadekar said that “those who are involved in the creative process of advertising, including media management, are to be lauded.” The advertising business is at crossroads, he said. “Due to low manufacturing, services suffer and therefore advertising also suffers. Freedom of expression through advertising, messaging and media and on every platform is absolutely necessary,” Javadekar emphasized, “because the right to criticise belongs to every citizen and the right to dissent is the essence of democracy.”
On the issue of TV ratings and regulations, Javadekar promised to consult all stakeholders before taking any decision regarding governmental intervention . “Ratings is an issue but when they presented the TAM issue to me, my first response was%u2026 when advertisers are ready to believe in TAM, what is the government to intervene?” he said.
He commended the Advertising Standards Council of India for establishing self-discipline and self-regulation in advertising. “With such initiatives, there is no need for the government to intervene. We will definitely rely on you and work with you,” he added to audience applause.
He also said that cross media ownership is a debatable issue. It is a part of business and is a part of a democratic country. However, if media becomes owned by two or three bodies, media freedom is compromised. He said, “when I was a member of the press council, we recommended […] that a newspaper […] write about a company, whether editorial, news analysis or articles, must mention their stake in that company [%u2026] or it becomes a game of monopoly.”
News courtesy: WFA
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