ASCI upholds complaints against Airtel, HDFC, others

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Advertising industry watchdog ASCI has upheld complaints against 54 campaigns for misleading advertisements during September, including those of Bharti Airtel, HDFC and Flipkart.
Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) upheld 13 complaints of misleading advertisements from personal and healthcare category, seven in telecom and broadband category and six in ecommerce category during the month.
The CCC has upheld five complaints against leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel, in which four was for promotions of its 4G services and one was for broadband service.
"The claim offer of, 'Get the same data benefits as your 3G pack and enjoy superfast 4G speeds at no extra cost; Free 4G Upgrade' was found misleading by omission of a disclaimer qualifying that the benefits offered under retail plans are not available to users under corporate plans," ASCI said in its order.

It also found the claim of unlimited calls, unlimited movies, unlimited music and loads of data, offered in Airtel-4G - My Plan Infinity as "false and misleading".
In another matter, the ad regulator said: "The website mentions MyPlan infinity with Airtel-4G plan has many terms and conditions and the calls are capped at 5,000 minutes per month. Therefore the choice of the term 'unlimited' was incorrect. The claim, 'Unlimited Calling, only with Airtel 4G' was false and misleading".

Similarly, Bharti Airtel's claim for its broadband services was found misleading.
"The claim in the advertisement,'We at Airtel are giving away exciting surprises to all our broadband users' was misleading by omission of a disclaimer qualifying conditions under which the claim is tenable for the offer," CCC said.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank failed to substantiate its claim of loan approval in 15 minutes. While, e-commerce firm Flipkart was also pulled up for two of its claims by ASCI.
Flipkart had on its website claimed the MRP of Tek-Tron velroc safety outdoor shoes as Rs 599, while actual printed MRP on the product was Rs 499 and offered on discounted price.
"This distorts facts and is therefore misleading the consumers as to actual discount being offered," CCC added.
FMCG major HUL was pulled for its Lux Scented Gold offer and Dove Elixir.
HUL's claim in the advertisement, "Pehli baar scented gold jewellery chupi hai hasaro lux mein" was considered misleading. HUL's another claim for hair oil Dove Elixir that "Coconut oil penetrates only through one layer in 30 minutes via visual representation" was also found to be "false and misleading".

Godrej Consumer Products was pulled for claiming its Godrej No 1 Soap as the purest soap after it failed to substantiate comparative data of purity of its product.
Philips' TVC for modular switches, in which it had shown spraying of liquid on the switches was found violating the code as it was "a dangerous practice which is likely to encourage minors to emulate such acts in a manner which could cause harm or injury".