MUMBAI: In line with its commitment to self-regulation in advertising on different platforms, the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) is presenting a platform for industry stalwarts and key stakeholders to deliberate, discuss and challenge the fraternity on the importance and the relevance of self-regulation in today’s world. ASCI has organized a festival of debate on “Creativity, For Goodness’ Sake” on 20 March 2015 from 3 pm onwards. It will be held at The Taj Land’s End in Mumbai.

The objective of this event is to create and present an engagement platform to uphold creativity, which is not only 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 festival will have global speakers namely BBH creative founder John Hegarty, Unilever SVP marketing Marc Matheiu, P&G managing director Shantanu Khosla, and filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani.

At the centre of the festival will be a debate on the parameters of creative expression in advertising with speakers drawn from the top echelons of the creative industry, advertisers and consumer activists. Industry Stalwarts like Ogilvy & Mather India and South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey, Future Brands CEO and MD Santosh Desai, Standard Chartered Bank global head of brand and CMO Sanjeeb Chaudhuri, and Provocateur Advisory director Paritosh Joshi, will be part of the panel discussion which will be moderated by Anish Trivedi. The debate will rake up issues on creative freedom and much more.

ASCI chairman Narendra Ambwani said, “Encouraging self-discipline by the creators of advertising, has been one of the key priorities chalked out for the year 2014 - 2015. As the chairman of ASCI, I believe that by promoting ASCI's guidelines more vigorously among advertisers and creative agencies the new advertisements released will meet ASCI's standards at the creative stage itself. This would help eradicate false and misleading claims in ads and very importantly serve the need of the hour – safeguarding consumer interest and reinforcing public’s confidence in the advertising industry. Working towards this cause of promoting the spirit of self – regulation, we here at ASCI have all come together to create a one-of-a kind festival of debate - Creativity for Goodness’ Sake! Through this unique engagement platform we aim at a fairly high powered and intellectually stimulating event for all stakeholders involved in the process of communication with consumers.”