N.B.A disclaimer about disclaimers

The disclaimer that comes with any product or service is itself a message, regardless of its content, that tells the customer that some uncertainty, some risk is involved. Whether it be the efficacy of an ‘energy drink’ or the chances of spotting a tiger in a wildlife park, the disclaimer is read by the customer as a legal ‘escape clause’ as well as a marker that says not to take things 100% literally. But this imposes a unique conundrum. If a disclaimer provides the product or service with protection in case of ‘failure’, can it become a licence to lie without having any accountability or consequence? An astrologer providing a disclaimer that his or her predictions cannot guarantee to bear what is being predicted can become the ‘coded’ term that could allow the most ridiculous ‘prognostications’ to pass muster. And the customer bears the full liability of being gullible to take marketing euphemism for literal truth.

Thus, GoI‘s decision this week to make it mandatory for celebrities and influencers to provide ‘clear disclaimers’ is welcome. For starters, those endorsing products will at least feel the need to know more about them than nothing with a disclaimer coming from their endorsing mouths. For another, the influencer or celebrity ‘disclaiming’ will raise a much-needed flag for the customer to be aware that what is being advertised may not necessarily be what is being sold. This simple act of being aware of a disclaimer being uttered tells ‘the emptor to be caveat’.

Disclaimers, one hopes, will make for a more mature consumer class in a country that still has the dice loaded heavily in favour of manufacturers/service providers. With more disclaimers come more accountability and expectations from seller and buyer, respectively.