The Consumer Complaints Council of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) upheld complaints against 109 advertisements in May. It had received complaints against 155 advertisements spanning across food and beverages, consumer durables and e-commerce sectors.
Some of the companies that were pulled up are Hindustan Unilever, Emami, Godrej Consumer Products, Patanjali Ayurved , Dr. Batra’s, LG India, PepsiCo India, Britannia, Amazon, Flipkart ,Voltas, Havells.
Brands were pulled up either for making misleading or false claims in their ads or not adequately substantiating these claims and were found to be in violation of ASCI’s code, it said in a statement.
ASCI’s council upheld nearly 10 complaints against Patanjali Ayurved ads which featured products such as Divya Swasari Pravahi, Dant Kanti, Kesh Kanti Natural Hair Cleanser, Kachi Ghani Mustard Oil and Jeera Biscuit. These ads were either found to be making factually incorrect or misleading claims or unsubstantiated claims.
In the health and personal care segment, companies such as HUL were pulled up for misleading claims in ads for Sunsilk Shampoo and Fair & Lovely Ayurvedic Care, while Emami was pulled up for claims made in an ad for Navratna Tel.
In the food and beverage segment, complaint against a Pepsi ad was upheld for “misleading and luring the consumers to buy Pepsi bottles with a minimum hope of getting cash back through Paytm.” Britannia Industries was pulled up for claims made in its ad for “100 per cent Whole Wheat Bread”.
In the consumer durables segment, companies such as LG India was pulled up for claims in ads for its ACs and water purifiers, Voltas for its All Star AC ad and Havells for its Standard Fan ad.
Patanjali, Pizza Hut, Flipkart, Amazon under scanner
