The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)’s Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) received 193 complaints out of total 290 advertisements that were passed by the Consumer Complaints Council in February 2018.
ASCI’s Suo Moto surveillance picked up 187 ads and objections on 163 advertisements were upheld.
If we categories complaints according to the sectors then ASCI received 154 objections belongs to the healthcare sector, 18 related to the education sector, 8 relating food & beverages, 2 on personal care and 11 belongs to others category. 103 complaints were made by general public or by the industry members and 30 advertisements were upheld by the CCC itself.
Advertisements made false claims and mislead public with their false claims. Number one reason for complaints was related to the gross exaggeration of product efficacy followed by the violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act (DMR Act) and the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Rules. Advertisements encouraging people to consume snacking products and claims like “instant” result post consumption of a fast absorbing product also considered being misleading. Enhancing IQ with the use of a leading food company product was inadequately substantiated. Another marketing advertisement that claims the use of their mattress less than six hours of sleep drains 40% of brain energy was considered to be misleading.
