In the financial year gone by (FY20-21), the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) processed over 6,140 complaints regarding misleading ads. Ads that made Covid-related claims were also in focus and Asci, which is a self-regulatory body, found only 12 of such 332 ads to be scientifically correct.
The panel that tracked and verified the claims made by such advertisements included microbiologists.
From the first quarter since the pandemic started, following a directive from the Ministry of AYUSH that asked Asci to identify ads that violated its advisory dated April 1, 2020, the body escalated 237 objectionable ads to the