Airtel versus ASCI: Ad campaigns under scrutiny for third time

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's run-in with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) over claims made in its commercials is not new. On Friday, the country's apex ad regulator asked Airtel to modify its on-going ‘Fastest Network’ ad campaign, the third straight year that ASCI had asked Bharti Airtel to modify its ads.
 
In 2016, Bharti Airtel was pulled up for its ‘Open Network’ ad campaign, where it claimed it was the first operator to make its entire network public and was, therefore, the best. In 2015, Airtel’s much-hyped ‘4G Speed Challenge’, launched when the telecom operator began its