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AdWise

ASCI Academy’s school program envisions to equip 3-8 graders with tools to identify, question, and evaluate advertising messages and reduce their vulnerability to misleading and harmful ads

Need for an ad literacy school program –

While children today are digital natives, they are not always critical consumers. “Gen Alpha” learns, plays, and socializes in online spaces where content heavily shapes their worldview.

  • Blurring Lines: Advertising is becoming invisible, often embedded within entertainment and content formats
  • New Formats of advertising: From influencers, unboxing videos, embedded ads to advergames, kids are exposed to advertising in ways that are very different from the past
  • What does research say: It is tougher than ever before for kids to identify and understand advertising, and separate it from entertainment or content

To address these challenges, The Advertising Standards Council of India, via ASCI Academy has been working on a mission to build advertising literacy amongst school kids through structured classroom sessions for Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8

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Program Aim & Objectives

The AdWise program aims to reach 1 million kids in classrooms across the country to build their capacity to understand the intent of advertising and identify it, making them informed and aware citizens.

  • Help children spot ads across formats
  • Teach them to think critically about persuasive intent
  • Reduce vulnerability to misleading advertising
  • Build early awareness of data and privacy

How The Program Works

  • Interactive Learning: 1 hour Facilitator-led presentations with games customised for Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8
  • Multi-lingual content: Training material is available in 8 languages
    1. English
    2. Hindi
    3. Marathi
    4. Kannada
    5. Gujarati
    6. Telugu
    7. Tamil
    8. Assamese
  • Assessment: Pre and post training evaluation to gauge the learning gains
  • School Recognition: Participating schools receive certificates
  • Supporting material: Posters for school notice boards featuring ad literacy concepts taught in a game format
  • Parent-Teacher Resource: Digital resource material to help parents & teachers guide children through everyday moments.
    The e-Resource Material covers:

    • The S.M.A.R.T. approach explained in the classroom session.
      SMART
    • Understanding the changing landscape of digital advertising.
    • FAQs and tips for guiding children’s digital safety.
    • Click here to download

Impact

Students trained : 1066374

  • Schools covered : 2063
  • States covered : Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Assam, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The program effectiveness through the pre-post assessment evaluation show improvements ranging from 57%-90%. These are significant and show that with the right program, we can reduce the vulnerability of kids to harmful or misleading advertising.

Outreach Partner

Testimonials

“Very interactive session conducted! Ads have both positive and negative impacts on our children, so great initiative. Children have learnt to use intelligence while seeing ads”

National English School, Kolkata

Good Morning,
My name is Vivek Kumar Sinha and I am the school Principal of Middle School Bara Manpur, Gaya Bihar. Today in my school, the information about the Advantage, disadvantages and how to protect from online fraud through the Session was given to the children of class 3 to 5 and 6 to 8 by Amit Shankar Sir in my School. The children listened very attentively to the information given, including the difference of good ad and bad ad. This is a good step and in future, more programs like this should continue. I would like to thank the entire team of ASCI and SHARP NGO for this.

Thanks and Regards,
Vivek Kumar Sinha
Principal Middle School Bara, Manpur Gaya- Bihar
Date: 22.04.26

 

Good Morning,
My name is Nishita Kumari and I am the school Principal of Middle School Charhata Manpur, Gaya Bihar. Today in my school, the information about the advantages, disadvantages and how to protect from online fraud through the Session was given to the children of class 3 to 5 and 6 to 8 by Amit Shankar Sir from Sharp NGO in my School. The children listened very attentively to the information given. This is a good step and in future, more programs like this should continue. I would like to thank the entire team of Sharp NGO and ASCI for this.

Thanks and Regards,
Nishita Kumari
Principal Middle School Charhata, Manpur Gaya Bihar.
Date: 22.04.26

Write to [email protected] to bring AdWise to your school and empower your students