ASCI upholds 116 complaints against misleading ads in July

Advertising sector watchdog ASCI has upheld complaints against 116 misleading ads in July, including those of ITC, Godrej Consumer, HUL and Airtel.
The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) received 165 complaints for the month.
It upheld 51 complaints from the healthcare category, 31 in the education category, 10 in the personal care segment followed by 5 related to the food and beverages category and 19 advertisements from other categories.
The CCC found the font size of a disclaimer in an advertisement by Bharti Airtel was very small which was found to be unreadable and therefore the company violated the ASCI guidelines for disclaimers.

ITC was pulled for its advertisement claim of classmate notebook which said "classmate notebook par likhoge toh teacher neatness Ke 2 extra marks degee" -- if students write on classmate notebook, they will get extra 2 marks for neatness.
ASCI said the advertisement was misleading, since neatness is not connected to writing on a sheet of white paper and one can be neat even on an ordinary notebook paper.

For Godrej Consumer Products advertisement claim "India's most power saving green inverter AC", ASCI said it was false and was misleading by ambiguity.
Hindustan Unilever was also pulled up for its clinic plus advertisement claim which said Amla, Bhibitaki aur Haritakise bana Triphala Jo Baalon ko de mazbooti Ayurved ki".

"The improvement of strength has not been shown to arise from the ingredients claimed, namely the three ayurvedic herbs. Connecting Triphala to the strength of the hair is misleading by ambiguity and implication," the watchdog said.
Complaint against Emami was upheld for its claim on Navratna Almond Cool Oil.
"The advertisement's claim, Badaam ke poshan ke saath, was not substantiated and is misleading by ambiguity and implication," ASCI said.
Similarly, Amazon Inc was also pulled up for the website's claim regarding technical details of the product as "Android OS V5.1.1(Lollipop) planned upgrade to V6 O".
The watchdog said it is a misrepresentation of facts and and is misleading through provision of false information on the features of the product.