MS Dhoni's ad for Cars24, Kia Motors' Seltos campaign draw ASCI flak

A Cars24.com advertisement featuring cricketer M S Dhoni has been found "misleading" for the false impression of instant payment to sellers, industry's self regulatory body ASCI said on Monday.

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) also reprimanded South Korean auto major Kia Motors for its sports utility vehicle Seltos' campaign for manifesting disregard for safety.

The industry body has been formed to protect the interests of the consumers and has a code of conduct, which has been adopted by all its members and shares details on complaints received.

For October, complaints against 344 advertisements were investigated, of which 80 were withdrawn by the advertisers, an official statement said, adding that its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) evaluated 264 advertisements.

Cars24's campaign featuring Dhoni creates an impression that every sale of car would be eligible for 'Instant payment', which is not the case, it said.

The ASCI guidelines for celebrities were also violated as no adequate evidence was provided of the celebrity's due diligence, the statement added.

Kia Motors' radio advertisement for its SUV titled 'He doesn't play by the rules. He plays with them' and 'Inspired by the badass in you' was found to be implying that one shouldn't care about the traffic rules, the statement said.

"It manifests a disregard for safety and encourages negligence," it added.

Beauty salon chain Shahnaz Husain Group was reprimanded because the 'SPF25' claim was inadequately substantiated, the statement said.

Of the 264 advertisements evaluated by the CCC, complaints against 137 advertisements were upheld, which included 89 from the education sector, 29 from healthcare, four from personal care and two from food and beverages, it said.