The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has proven itself to be avant-garde once again by being progressive enough to amend its Code and recognizing the importance of gender identity and body shaming in advertising.
Section 3.1(b) of the original ASCI Code regarded all advertisements deriding anyone on the basis of race, caste, creed, gender, and nationality to be hazardous or harmful to society or to individuals, particularly children, to a degree or of a type which is unacceptable to society at large, and hence not permitted. The revised Section 3.1(b) now reads, “No advertisement shall be permitted which: derides any individual or groups on the basis of race, caste, color, religion, gender, body shape, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental conditions or nationality.” Therefore, any advertisement that disparages an individual on the basis of these criteria is in violation of the ASCI Code, and vulnerable, at best, to a complaint, worse being taken down, and at worst, scorned on Twitter by the woke citizens of India.