Maximum cases of advertisement norms violations were reported from the healthcare sector during 2023-24, followed by illegal offshore betting and personal care categories, according to the Advertising Standards Council of India's (Asci's) Annual Complaints Report released on Wednesday. The healthcare sector accounted for a maximum 19 per cent or 1,569 of 8,229 advertisements scrutinised by Asci during the year. Illegal offshore betting accounted for 17 per cent, while the share of personal care advertisements was 13 per cent.
Education ads are among the worst offenders when it comes to misleading claims. After keeping tabs on factual discrepancies, the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) is now updating its guidelines for the sector to curb the tendency of such ads to perpetrate negative habits and stereotypes. The industry watchdog has invited public consultation starting on Monday until April 15, following which its updated guidelines will take effect. Inputs and feedback can be sent to contact@ascionline.in.
ASCI and Ayush ministry get down to monitoring print and television ads of ayurvedic, unani, homeopathic and yoga and naturopathy practitioners.
The scale of illegal gambling and betting in India is staggering, with 1.6 billion visits recorded between October and December 2024 across four analysed platforms -- Parimatch, Stake, 1xBet, and Battery Bet.
The watchdog feels that the claims are not real.
India's advertising fraternity is concerned about the overriding powers that the draft Broadcasting Services a Regulation Bill, 2007 has envisaged for regulating content of promotional campaigns.
The Advertising Standards Council of India has found Reliance Infocomm's advertisements on WLL telephony misleading for not mentioning conditions applicable with schemes and giving false information on services like roaming.
ASCI has released norms for fairness creams, saying these would go a long way in ensuring ads do not discriminate against people with dark skin.
During the said period, the Consumer Complaints Council of ASCI found 15 advertisers, including Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular, fast moving consumer goods player Dabur and Elder Pharma and coaching centre Career Launcher, violating the council's code.
Advertisements of charitable organisations and crowdsourcing platforms must not disrespect the dignity of the beneficiaries by showing their graphic images, the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) said in its guidelines for charitable causes released on Thursday. Additionally, these ads must disclose how much of the raised funds would be used as fee by the platform, it added. Acknowledging that crowdsourcing platforms provide reach through ads and organic posts to beneficiaries by helping them tap potential donors, Asci said: "There have been some concerns about ads that create donor distress through the use of images that may be too graphic."
While the move has been welcomed by the ad industry as well as consumer activists, many still complain that advertisers do not take ASCI rulings seriously, and instead choose to move court to seek relief or press charges against a rival for an offending ad.
Showing the power social media influencers hold in the advertising industry today, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Thursday said 70 per cent of Indians are likely to buy a product they endorse. In its "Influencer Trust Report," based on a survey of 820 respondents above 18, ASCI said that 79 per cent of respondents trust social media influencers. Out of these, thirty per cent trust the influencers "completely".
Education, healthcare and personal care are the most violative categories of ads, according to the annual complaints report of India's advertising regulator for the last financial year. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Tuesday released its annual complaints report for April 2021-March 2022, taking into account print, television and digital media as it processed 5,532 ads - a sharp rise of 62 per cent from 2020-21. It processed 7,631 complaints - an increase of 25 per cent from last year. Of these, 75 per cent were taken up suo motu by the regulatory body's own artificial intelligence-based tracking system.
Greenwashing is making misleading or false environment-friendly claims about a product. Consumers in India currently do not have any way of telling whether a claim is authentic or greenwashing. And one never hears of action against any company for making false claims of being environment-friendly.
Advertisers will have to put a disclaimer while promoting the "highly risky" and unregulated cryptocurrencies from April 1, a self-regulatory body for the industry said on Wednesday. All virtual digital assets (VDAs), which are commonly referred to as crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), will have to put the disclaimer in a "prominent and unmissable" way in campaigns for products and services, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said. The announcement of the guidelines, done after consultations with industry stakeholders, government and financial regulators as well, comes as the advertising for the controversial products and services is on the upswing.
Newly formed CCPA will now regulate false and misleading advertising and also take action to punish offenders, whether through fines, discontinuance, alteration of the ad, or even jail. ASCI as a voluntary, self-regulatory body, had no legal powers to enforce its actions.
Do away with the grey, and let us have it in black and white. That's the message the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has for digital media influencers. ASCI has brought out draft guidelines for "influencer advertising on digital media", an expanding and so far unmonitored landscape where the lines between personal and promotional content is often blurred. The self-regulatory body wants social media influencers to disclose upfront - through labels or in the case of audio media, by way of an announcement at the beginning and the end of the audio - that the content is promotional and paid for.
An advertisement showing two women talking about Cars24's promise that you can test drive the car and return it with full refund in seven days if it doesn't work for you has upset a section of men. In the ad, the women say there should be such a policy for husbands, too. "Will same return policy be taken so laughingly as this one if we reverse the #gender? (sic)" asks a complainant to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Another complaint, this time against a FreshToHome ad, reads: "Suggest to ban gory and repulsive photos of animal parts in ads - just as photos of accident victims."
While members are bound to listen to ASCI, the self-regulator has frequently faced resistance from non-members, who've challenged its authority to redress grievances of complainants
The videos of the perfume brand Layer Shot sparked outrage among a large section of social media users, who claimed the advertisement sought to promote sexual violence against women.
The government will soon come out with guidelines for social media influencers, making it mandatory for them to declare their association with the product they endorse, sources said.
The move follows an arrangement with the dept of consumer affairs.
Sebamed's campaign for its cleansing bar of the same name, released across print, television, digital and outdoor, has also named Santoor, a popular soap brand from Wipro Consumer Care.
The advertisement is unnecessarily misleading the consumer and also derogatory and denigrating to the oil industry, SEA said
No more a paper tiger, the Advertising Standards Council of India will partner the Department of Consumer Affairs to enforce better compliance.
The Customer Complaints Council pulled up Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) for advertisement of its water purifier product 'Pureit Ultima'.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has rapped the fast moving consumer goods majors Hindustan Unilever and Paras Pharma for their objectionable deodorant commercials, and asked them to pull them off air.
The four 'gaushalas' or cow shelters will work on improving productivity of Indian cows up to 10 times
Channels across the board from news to general entertainment, music and movies telecast half-hour to one-hour advertorials promoting these products, mainly during non-prime time hours
The government on Friday came out with new guidelines to prevent misleading advertisements, including those targeting children and making free claims to woo consumers.
Though the current framework applies to online advertisements as well, these pilot projects would lead to tighter screening on the Internet.
State Ayurved Department's licence officer Y S Rawat said the notice is being issued to the firm to explain from where it got the permission to launch a 'corona kit' as a cure from the virus.
Raymond, the Singhania family-controlled textile and apparel manufacturer, had slapped a notice against the city-based footwear retailer for showing a man wearing suit with a tagline The Incomplete Man. In a letter written to ASCI, Raymond had pointed out that the company has been using the tagline for several decades and it is inseparable from its brand.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Advertising industry watchdog ASCI upheld complaints against 82 campaigns in June for misleading ads, including those of Flipkart, Uber, Snapdeal, Vodafone.
Almost each of these companies has a different technology to show for the effectiveness against microbes.
'Why is the government asking parents to be careful rather than coming up with strict rules and regulations for the companies?'
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