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In November 2015 the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) upheld complaints against telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Axis Bank, amongst others, for advertisements that were misleading.
In all, complaints against 38 out of 70 advertisements were upheld as being unsubstantiated or misleading. Of these, 19 belonged to the healthcare category, five were in the telecommunication and broadband category, four in the personal care space and the remaining 10 were from other categories.
In the health and personal care segment, ads by Ayurwin Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd (Nutrigain) and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, were amongst those that were upheld. The first ad showcases a girl saying that she is being refused for marriage because of her thin body. The advertisement derides young girls and is derogatory to young girls, especially to those with weight issues as it results in social conditioning of opinion against them, the ASCI maintained.
Patanjali’s claim that the Kesh Kanti Oil helped give relief from hair loss and greying were deemed not substantiated with clinical evidence.
Bharti Airtel’s claim of "unlimited" without any qualification or conditions clearly and legibly stated in the advertisement, is misleading as the "Airtel-4G-My Plan Infinity" is not completely unlimited. It was concluded that the claim of "unlimited calls" is not substantiated and is misleading, the ASCI said.
Similarly, Idea Cellular’s claim in the advertisement, “except for Idea no other service provider can give you connectivity from Patna to Pune”, is false, not substantiated and misleading.
Others against whom claims were upheld included Vimal Pan Masala (in the radio ad, the statutory warning at the end is spoken too fast to be understood), Axis Bank (Axis Bank Credit Cards) where the claim “now convert your credit card transaction into convenient EMIs”, is misleading by omission of a disclaimer qualifying that the EMI conversion would not be available on purchase of gold/ jewellery. It was noted that there was lack of clarity regarding the applicable terms and conditions in the communication to customers.
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