In order to evaluate the genuineness of an unrestricted product or service brand extension of a product (e.g., liquor and tobacco) whose advertising is prohibited by law, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has decided on some new yardsticks.

The new norms tightens the screws on rampant surrogate advertising of products that are banned from advertising their products.

The following objective criteria is to be used to qualify a correct brand extension of a product or a service (the full regulations areter Ill Clause 3.6 (a) of ASCI advertising code):

# Brand extension of a product or a service should be registered with appropriate India government authority like GST/ FDA/ FSSAI/TM, etc.

#For a brand that is present in the market for 2 years, the sales turnover of the product or service should exceed Rs.5 crore (Rs. 50 million) per annum nationally or Rs 1 crore (Rs. 10 million) per annum per state where distribution has been established and this fact has to be validated by a certificate from an independent organization such as NielsenIQ or a category specific industry association, or a reputed chartered accountant firm.

# Brand extensions, which have been launched in the market, but haven’t yet completed two years, must achieve a net sales turnover of Rs. 20 lakhs (Rs. 20,00000) per month from the date of launch and such sales should not be of a subsidiary or a sister concern; demonstrate fixed asset investments which are exclusive to the advertised brand extension of not less than Rs. 10 crore (Rs. 100 million) where such assets could be land, machines, factory, software, etc., in case the product is being manufactured/ developed by the advertiser; no advertising related expense should be part of such investments.

In case the manufacturing/ procurement of such brand extensions is being outsourced, then evidence may include board resolutions and purchase orders for long term (1 year) contracts with service providers/manufacturing entities, stating their capacities, and contracted volumes/Rupee value, that clearly demonstrate the possibility of achieving the turnover as laid out in other criteria.

#Give evidence of turnover greater than 10 per cent of the turnover of the same brand in the restricted category (including sub brands in the restricted category).

# All the above evidence should be certified by a reputed and independent CA firm.

# Irrespective of the length of time the brand has been in the market, date of launch would be considered as date of the first invoice for sale for the said brand extension.

If a brand extension cannot meet the qualification criteria, for the purpose of the ASCI code, it would not be considered a genuine brand extension, but rather a surrogate created to advertise a restricted category.