ASCI upholds 132 of 169 complaints in October

The number of complaints has increased from September. As usual, the maximum violations were in education, health and personal care categories.

Advertising Standard Council of India's Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), a self regulatory industry body, announced the number of complaints it upheld in October, 2013. Of the 169 advertising complaints received, CCC found 132 ads guilty of violating ASCI prescribed codes. In fact, the number of complaints rose from September, when it received complaints against 145 advertisements (of which 121 were upheld).

Most of the complaints, as usual, were in the education, health and personal care categories for showing misleading, false, inadequate or insufficient data substantiating the claim.

In the health and personal care category, CCC found a whopping 92 advertisements violating ASCI's code. Some of companies that found themselves in this list include Eli Pharmaceuticals, Nature Care Wellness, Hygienic Research Institute's Super Vasmol 33, Telemart Shopping Network for Fairpro, Jeevan Jyoti Fertility Hospital, Sanjeevani Homeopathic Medical Centre, Wet & Dry Personal Care's Everteen Vaginal Tightening Gel, Procter & Gamble Hygiene & HealthCare's Pantene Hair Fall Protection, Dabur India's New Fem Anti Darkening hair removal cream, Meck Pharmachem's Glucomeck Tablets, L'Oreal India and Hindustan Unilever's Dove Essential Nourishment body lotion.

The Homecare category saw companies such as Hindustan Unilever's New Domex Zero Stain being pulled up for claim without data support.

Under the education category, 25 advertisers were found to have unsubstantiated claims. The companies include Indian Institute of Banking, Think and Learn, Alchemist, Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E) and Info Edge (India), among others.

Havells India's wires, Elgi Ultra Industries' Edura Pressure Cookers and Kent RO System's water purifier were found guilty in the consumer durables category.

The auto category saw Bajaj Auto's Bajaj Discover television commercial coming under the CCC scanner. The TVC showed wrong driving practice that was dangerous and could lead to accidents. The complaint against Tata Docomo (Tata Teleservices) was upheld in the telecom category, while in food and beverages category, complaints against eight advertisements were upheld. Some of the companies in this category include GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare's Horlicks, Ganesh Grain's wheat flour, Saboo Sodium Chrolo's Surya Namak, GCMF's Amul Butter and Marico's Saffola Total.

The other advertisers who were found to have objectionable claims included Kalyan Jewellers, Telemart Shopping Network, xoxo skyshop.com, Pernod Ricard India, Olympia Incorporation, Titan Industries, Taylor Devices India, www.firstcry.com and Uptec.