ASCI Disclosure Rules for Gifted Products and Barter Posts

Free or discounted products, hosted experiences and stays, event invites with value, affiliate commissions, equity or revenue share, employment or family relationships with the brand, and any contest entry conditioned on posting. If the creator received something of value connected to the post, disclosure is required.

Sample-based posts that the creator genuinely bought themselves need no disclosure — but the burden of that being true sits with both parties if challenged.

ASCI accepts: Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee, Free gift. For barter specifically, 'Gifted', 'Collab' or 'Ad' are the standard usable labels in the Indian market.

Not acceptable: ambiguous tags such as #sp, #spon, #collab buried in a hashtag block, 'thanks to [brand]', 'in association with' without a disclosure word, or disclosure only in a comment.

Static and carousel posts: disclosure in the first two lines of the caption, above the 'more' fold, in the same language as the post. Stories: superimposed text on every frame that features the product, visible for the duration, not a tiny sticker in a corner. Reels and video: both superimposed on-screen text and a caption mention; for videos over two minutes, periodic on-screen repetition.

Live streams: verbal disclosure at the start and periodically throughout. Audio-only: verbal disclosure at start and end.

Instagram's paid-partnership label is good practice and should be used, but ASCI expects an explicit text disclosure as well — the platform tag alone is not treated as sufficient.

Both the advertiser and the creator carry responsibility. Brands cannot outsource compliance by claiming the creator posted independently, and creators cannot claim they simply followed a brand brief. Escalations from ASCI can proceed to the relevant government body, and for regulated verticals the sectoral regulator's rules layer on top.

Practical consequence: the brand should include disclosure requirements in every brief, and should review content before or immediately after publish. A 24-hour post-publish audit catches most violations while the fix is still trivial.

Health, wellness and supplements: no disease-cure claims; qualified practitioners only for medical advice. Finance and investment: SEBI registration requirements for advice; risk disclaimers mandatory. Alcohol and tobacco: surrogate advertising rules apply and most barter formats are unusable. Children's products: heightened scrutiny; no direct exhortation to purchase.

For any of these, run barter content through legal review before publish, or restrict the vertical to paid deals where script approval is contractual.

Disclosure word present and from the approved list. Placed above the fold or on-screen. Same language as the content. Present on every frame or segment featuring the product. Platform partnership label enabled. No unverifiable performance or health claims. Vertical-specific disclaimers included. Brand has an archived copy of the published post.