Next time you go for shopping, don’t get into advertisements’ trap as most of the commercials that arrest your attention are either misleading or false. According to a latest report of the advertising industry watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), 74 advertisements out of 110 are misleading and unauthenticated.
The major FMCG companies whose advertisements were found misleading and not substantiated with evidence include LG, Nivea, L’Oreal’s, Kent, Fair & Lovely, Aakash Institute, BMW, Amazon, Britania, HDFC bank, Max Bupa Health Insurance, etc.
Upholding the complaint LG Inverter ACs, the ASCI report said that the claim of LG of introducing AC that keeps mosquitoes away was found false as it was not substantiated with evidence.
Talking to Millennium Post, ASCI general secretary Shweta Purandare said, “The companies whose advertisements have been found misleading will have to withdraw the ads or modify the content. As per the past experiences, about 90 per cent of companies under scanner have pulled out their advertisements.”
In a reply to a question as what will happen to consumers who have already bought products after watching the ‘misleading’ ad contents, Purandare said, “The consumer redressal part is not in the preview of ASCI as it monitors the contents of the ad. If consumers want to register complaint against the companies, they are free to do the same and lodge their complaints with National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.”
According to the Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of the ASCI, it has upheld 28 complaints of misleading ads from personal and healthcare category, followed by education category with 25 ads and 21 advertisements from other categories, including BMW, the German luxury automobile company. In case of HDFC Bank, the advisement industry watchdog said that the claim of HDFC bank to avail preapproved paperless personal loan of upto Rs 7.50 lakh in just 12 hours, was not substantiated and misleading by ambiguity.
The ASCI has even upheld the complaints against Boost, a popular malt-based health food drink among kids. The advertisement watchdog has stated that the TV commercial showing adult players demonstrating an increase in stamina is misleading. The similar observation has also been stated about Aakash Institute, a medical as well as engineering coaching institute.