ASCI upholds complaints against companies for misleading ads

Advertising industry watchdog ASCI has upheld complaints against 74 campaigns for misleading ads, including those of e-commerce majors like Amazon and FMCG biggies such as HUL and Reckitt Benckiser.
According to the Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI), it upheld about 28 complaints of misleading ads from personal and healthcare category in July.
The CCC upheld complaints against e-commerce firm Amazon after finding a TV commercial of its e-book reader Kindle as "misleading by omission".
Online auction and shopping platform, ebay, was also pulled for misleading claims.
The regulator has found that company's claims under 'ebay guarantee' and "100 per cent satisfaction or refund/replacement" were false, not substantiated and were misleading.

Besides, it also pulled German auto major BMW as "mention of price in the advertisement in place of down payment" was found misleading and against the norms.

Similarly, ASCI also pulled cosmetics major Shiseido for the ad of Za True White Day Cream after it failed to substantiate claims made by it.
The advertisement claims like "94 per cent improvement in skin clarity, more glowing & radiant skin, 100 per cent improvement in skin tone, reduction of spots and pigmentation" and "now see results in just seven days", were inadequately substantiated, it added.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever also failed to substantiate claims of its Fair & Lovely Men Charcoal face wash of giving a fair look for eight hours.

Similarly, private sector lender HDFC Bank was found on the wrong side after it failed to substantiate its claims on pre-approved loans.
"The advertisement (HDFC) claim 'Avail of your pre-approved paperless personal loan of up to Rs 7.50 lakh in just 12 hours' was not substantiated and is misleading by ambiguity," the advertising regulator said.
LG Electronics was also pulled for not substantiating its claim with evidence that its Inverter V air-conditioners keep mosquitoes away.
Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Healthcare's claim in a TV commercial of "an increase in stamina" from its energy drink Boost was also found misleading.
"The visual depicted in the TVC read in conjunction with the disclaimer, is misleading, as the disclaimer in the TVC is about the scientific study published in a peer reviewed scientific journal and are proven for the age group of 7-11 years," the CCC said.

Similarly, water purifier maker Kent RO claims of "sabse surakshit pani", "100 per cent protection" and "100 per cent Health" were found misleading.
Reckitt Benckiser's claims for its Harpic toilet cleaner were also found on the wrong side as CCC observed "disclaimers in the TVC were legible, and contravened the ASCI Guidelines on Supers".