How ASC screening works: from submission to clearance

ASC screening is a content review run by a committee of practitioners drawn from the three pillars of the industry — advertisers, agencies, and media. They review your ad against the Code of Ethics and Manual of Procedures and return one of three outcomes. This article walks through the process end to end so you know exactly what's happening on the other side of the submission portal.

Step 1: Determine whether the ad needs to be screened

Two questions decide this. First, does the product or service fall into one of the mandatory pre-screening categories — OTC drugs and Home Remedy products, food and dietary supplements, products under the Milk Code, alcohol beverages, or airlines and transport with promotional fares? Second, does the ad make any of the five must- screen claims — No. 1 or leadership, absolute, comparative, exclusivity, or superiority?

If yes to either, screening is mandatory. If no, screening is technically voluntary — but in practice, member broadcasters, publishers, and out-of-home operators won't run unscreened creative. See what ASC clearance actually means for the longer treatment.

Step 2: Build the substantiation pack

Substantiation is the evidence that backs every claim in the ad. The ASC will not screen an ad whose substantiation pack is incomplete. The committee typically expects to receive:

• Executive summary of each research study referenced, plus the full research protocol (design, methodology, questionnaire).
• Third-party quantitative consumer research for claims like "most preferred" or "most recommended." Qualitative research is not accepted as substantiation.
• Retail audit data (volume and value, 12-month cumulative) from an independent source for No. 1 or leadership claims. Brand-tracker data alone is not enough.
• Clinical, scientific, or laboratory tests for product performance claims.
• Three independent tests at one-month intervals for absolute claims, conducted by an accredited third-party testing agency following identical methodology.
• FDA Certificate of Product Registration for any food, supplement, OTC drug, cosmetic, or medical device. The claim in the ad cannot exceed the indication in the CPR.
• Signed and notarized endorser certifications for testimonials.
• Talent permits for child performers.
• Regulator-issued permits for promos and sweepstakes (DTI), pharmaceutical promotions (FDA), transport fare promotions (DTI), telco price/speed claims (NTC).
• For real estate: DHSUD-issued Advertisement Approval Number, License to Sell, and project completion date.

Step 3: Submit the creative

The creative submitted must be the final version intended for placement. That means a finished cut for TVC, the actual key visual for print and out-of-home, the actual web banner artwork, and so on. Storyboards and animatics are accepted for pre-screening but the final must be re-submitted before placement.

Pharmaceutical advertising materials must be signed by the company's medical director per DOH Administrative Order 2014-0040 before submission. This is the single most common preventable bottleneck for OTC and Home Remedy creative.

Step 4: Committee review

The screening committee reviews the creative against three layers of standards in parallel:

1. General standards of presentation — decency, truthfulness, fairness, respect for country and culture, and the protection of children.
2. Claim standards — whether each must-screen claim is properly substantiated, properly qualified, and properly rendered (on-screen citations, disclaimers, where required).
3. Category-specific rules — for OTC, food supplements, alcohol, banking, real estate, telco, tobacco/vape, cosmetics, and other regulated categories, the committee applies the specific rules in Articles V–VIII of the Code, plus the relevant regulator's IRR.

Step 5: One of three outcomes

Approved

The committee finds the creative compliant. An ASC reference number is issued, and the spot can be placed. The reference number is version-specific — re-edits typically require a fresh submission.

Approved with revisions

The creative is largely compliant but requires specific changes — a copy line, an added disclaimer, a re-rendered generic name box on a pharma TVC, the addition of "results may vary," and so on. Once the revisions are made and confirmed, the reference number is issued. Most first submissions of unfamiliar creative land here.

Disapproved

The creative cannot air in its current form. Disapproval signals a substantive issue — an unsubstantiated must-screen claim, a category violation, denigration of a competitor, a Milk Code breach, or similar. Re-submission requires a meaningful rework, not cosmetic edits.

Step 6: Revisions and re-submission

Revision turnarounds depend on the depth of change. A copy line edit and a fresh disclaimer can clear in days. A claim removal that requires re-shooting a voiceover and re-cutting frames can push timelines by weeks. This is the stage where pre-screening at storyboard pays for itself — every issue caught before final cut is a copy change rather than a reshoot.

Step 7: Appeals and disputes

Disagreements with a screening committee decision can be escalated through ASC's dispute resolution process. Complaints from third parties — competitors, consumers, government agencies — can also trigger a hearing or post-screening review of an already-cleared ad. Where a complaint is filed by a government agency or LGU, the ASC may issue a Cease-and-Desist Order pending revision.

Step 8: Pre-emptive rights and plagiarism

Approval does not extinguish other claims. If a competitor proves pre-emptive rights to a slogan, layout, music cue, or distinctive execution element, the ASC can issue a CDO even on a cleared spot. Plagiarism — substantial imitation of another ad anywhere in the world — overrides pre-emptive rights protection entirely.

Pre-emptive rights last two years for non-competitive products and five years for competitive products, measured from the last airing, publication, posting, or upload.

Common reasons screening drags

• Substantiation pack incomplete on first submission. The committee asks for missing items, the clock resets.
• Claim language in the ad doesn't match what the FDA registration or research actually supports.
• On-screen text and disclaimers are not legible at broadcast resolution. Re-rendered exports are required.
• Endorser contract has expired or signed certification is missing.
• Sales promo mechanics are unapproved by the relevant regulator (DTI, FDA, NTC, CAB) at the time of submission.

Every one of these is preventable upstream. AdScan reads the creative and the substantiation against the same criteria the ASC applies and flags the gaps before submission. Try it on your next ad.