ASCI Launches ‘AdWise’ to Build Advertising Literacy Among 1 Million Schoolchildren by 2026

Mumbai, December 10, 2025: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has officially rolled out AdWise, a nationwide classroom-based programme aimed at enhancing advertising literacy among schoolchildren from Grades 3 to 8. Launched under ASCI Academy, the programme aims to reach 1 million students across 2,000 schools by the end of 2026.

Since its September launch, AdWise has already trained over 1,14,000 students across seven states and 240 schools. The initiative addresses a growing need for young digital natives to critically evaluate advertising messages in an increasingly complex media environment.

ASCI Academy measures improvements by evaluating students’ ability to recognise advertising, distinguish it from other content and assess its intent. Assessments conducted before and after sessions show marked improvement — with a 59% to 86% increase in correct responses among students in Grades 3–5, and a 57% to 95% increase among those in Grades 6–8.

With the tagline “Smart Kids. Smart Choices,” AdWise seeks to reduce children’s vulnerability to misleading or potentially harmful advertisements. ASCI is also conducting an ethnographic study examining how Gen Alpha (children aged 7–15) interpret and respond to commercial content across digital and real-world platforms.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO and Secretary General of ASCI, said, “Children today are exposed to advertising in ways that are fundamentally different from previous generations. They don’t possess critical cognitive abilities to navigate advertising but they are increasingly being exposed online and in the real world to marketing messages in various forms. With children being an important focus of ASCI, we are equipping them, parents and teachers to critically analyse and understand advertising’s influence. Enabling children this way fosters responsible media consumption and creates an informed audience.”

Following a successful pilot phase, AdWise is now being implemented in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Indore, Bhopal, Patna, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kolkata. The NGO SHARP (School Health Annual Report Programme) is ASCI’s implementation partner. Phase 2 will expand the initiative to Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab, Assam and Karnataka.

The one-hour workshops are customised for two groups — Grades 3–5 and Grades 6–8 — with age-appropriate modules. Younger students are introduced to concepts such as identifying ads, understanding persuasion and recognising the difference between ads and content. Older students learn about persuasive techniques, influencer advertising, online safety and real-world case studies.

The programme includes facilitator-led presentations, classroom handouts, gamified content, videos, and parent guides. Materials are currently available in English, Hindi and Marathi, with Tamil and Kannada translations underway.

Through AdWise, ASCI aims to help children build essential media literacy skills, enabling them to recognise and understand advertising more effectively and make informed choices in a highly commercialised media landscape.