ASCI upholds 121 of 140 complaints in May

The maximum violations were in the health and personal care category.

The Advertising Standard Council of India's Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), a self-regulatory industry body, announced the number of complaints it upheld in May 2014. Of the 140 complaints received, CCC found 121 ads guilty of violating its prescribed codes. Along with the advertisements, product packaging was also found to be misleading in many of the products.

Most of the complaints were in the health and personal care category, followed by education, food and beverages, consumer durables, technology, IT and telecom, auto, online, insurance and financial security and entertainment.

In the health and personal care category, CCC found a whopping 66 advertisements violating ASCI's code. These ads have been released in the print and television medium. Some of the health care products or services ads also contravened provisions of the Drug & Magic Remedies Act.

Some of the companies that found themselves in this list include Dabur India's Odomos Naturals, Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare's Dettol Soap advertisement, Marico's Nihar Naturals Shanti Amla Hair Oil ad and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare's Horlicks ad.

Under the education category, 39 advertisers were found to have unsubstantiated claims. The companies include IIT Kalrashukla, Career Launcher India, Institute of Rural Management, RMK Engineering College, Shri Ram Group, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Aptech's 'Arena Animation Academy' among others.

The food and beverage category mentioned two ads that contravened ASCI's code. The companies include Radico Khaitan's YouTube advertisement, which shows Magic Moments Remix Music CDs, which is a proxy ad for their flavoured vodkas. The other defaulter is Jubilant Foodworks' advertisement of Dominos Pizza shows two roommates using a third roommate's credit card to order a pizza without his permission.

In the consumer durables category, three companies were booked including Videocon Industries for their Kelvinator Supercool refrigerators ad, Hi-Tech Sweet Water Technologies and Easy Dry Systems. In the technology category, Cheil India (for the Samsung Galaxy Star Pro ad) and Apple India's iPhone 5S' ads were found to be misleading. Idea Cellular, Hathway and MTNL Fiber Optics defaulted in the IT and Telecom category while Ravindu Toyota Express Service was booked in the auto category.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation's ad and Import Express India were defaulters in the online category while insurance and financial security saw Max Life Insurance and Kotak Securities giving misleading information in their advertisements. Sarthak Entertainment (Sarthak TV) is the sole defaulter in the Entertainment category. It claimed that Sarthak TV is the No.1 Odia channel.