Advertising sector watchdog ASCI upheld complaints against 80 misleading advertisements in February, including those of ITC, HUL, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Hewlett Packard India, Reliance Communication and Tata Motors.
The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) received 133 complaints for the month. It upheld 48 complaints of misleading ads from education category, 13 in the healthcare category followed by five in the food and beverages category.
The CCC found claim by Reliance Communications, part of Anil Ambani-led group as "misleading by exaggeration" after its failed to substantiate its claim of "India's finest 3G network".
"The advertisement's claim, "India's finest 3G network", was not adequately substantiated and is misleading by exaggeration," it said.
Bharti Airtel was also pulled for its TV commercial for Airtel 4G for not following ASCI's guideline.
"The advertisement's language and the hold duration of the Supers in the advertisement was not as per the ASCI guidelines on Supers. The TVC contravened the ASCI guidelines on Supers," the regulator said.
Similarly, Vodafone India also failed to substantiate its claim in ad of having world's largest 4G network.
"The advertisement's claim, "World's Largest 4G Network, now in Kochi" was not substantiated. Also, the claim was misleading in the absence of appropriate disclaimer/qualifier," it said.
Hewlett Packard India's ad for its printers claiming "upto 480 pages for just Rs 475 per cartridge" was found to be "misleading by ambiguity and implication".
Tata Motors was also pulled up for violation of traffic rules in its ad for its GenX Nano Easy Shift where vehicle indicator light was not lit while overtaking another vehicle.
Similarly, a complaint against FMCG major ITC was also upheld for violating traffic rules in the ad of its Sunfeast Farmlite Cookies.
"In the advertisement, the visual of two ladies (mother and daughter) playing on zebra crossing, shows and encourages, without justifiable reason, an unsafe practice, and manifests a disregard for safety," said ASCI.
Hindustan Unilever also failed to substantiate its claim of "10X more skin care moisturisers" for its Lifebuoy Clini-Care 10 Soap before the CCC.
HUL was also pulled for "misleading" print ad of its Dove Hair Fall Rescue Shampoo with Nutrilock Actives.
"The advertisement of Dove Hair Fall Rescue Shampoo with Nutrilock Actives is misleading by ambiguity because consumers will believe that Dove will also reduce natural hair fall; whereas the context of product benefit is with reference to hair fall due to breakage, as specified in the disclaimer," the regulator said.
Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel was also pulled up
for its claim of recharge of Rs 29 advertised as "Mahiney bhar ka internet". The supers in the advertisement informs the customers that 75 MB of data is offered on a recharge of Rs 29 with validity of 30 days.
It was noted that the advertisement visual depicts tabs for Facebook and YouTube implying that data may be used for these Apps, but for the Facebook and YouTube applications, 75 MB is not likely to last for a month," it said.
"The claim Rs29 Mahiney bhar ka internet (Rs.29 Internet for full month) is misleading by ambiguity and implication," said ASCI.
Panasonic was also pulled up for its ad of ACs Panasonic Life Conditioners, where it has used the word word "Nanoe-G" to describe fine particles consisting of ions and radicals.
"While the AC may have the capacity to remove dust and kill bacteria due to Negative ions being emitted, the reference to Nano is misleading by ambiguity and implication as negative ions are not considered as Nano particles," it said.
Mails sent to Vodafone, Airtel, Flipkart, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer, Panasonic and AB Inbev India seeking their response remained unanswered.
