Regulator pulls up HUL, Dabur, Uber, others for misleading ads

New Delhi: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the self-regulatory organisation of advertisers in the country, has upheld complaints against 200 misleading advertisements in October, including those of HUL, Dabur India, Uber India, Hindustan Petroleum and Usha International.

The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) received 319 complaints during the month. It upheld 82 in healthcare category, 75 in education, 11 in personal care, eight to the food and beverages category and 24 from other categories.

The CCC found that the claims of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) for its lever ayush soap saying 'based on 5,000-year-old ayurved scriptures with 15 ayurvedic herbs' besides other claims were inadequately substantiated and are misleading.

Furthermore, the ASCI said that HUL did not submit any evidence that the celebrity is in agreement with the claims being made in the advertisement in general.

Citing the findings, ASCI general secretary Shweta Purandare said, "The visual of the celebrity (Akshay Kumar) when seen in conjunction with the claims are likely to mislead consumers regarding the product efficacy and contravened ASCI's guidelines for celebrities in advertising."

Similarly, Dabur India was pulled up for its advertisement of Dabur lal tel which claimed 'Dugni tezi se sharirik vikas'.

"The claim was valid for babies up to six months of age and there was a discrepancy in the ad as it showed the baby getting up and walking towards the mother indicating the age to be more than six months," Purandare said, adding that the government must act against companies using misleading advertisement to promote their products as it's a breach of the trust.

Cab service provided Uber India's advertisement claim which said 'save Rs 500 on your next 10 Uber rides and ride Uber and the discount will auto apply', were found misleading by the ASCI.