ASCI upholds 84 out of 95 Complaints in August

The maximum violations of ASCI's code occurred in the health, personal care and education categories.

The Advertising Standard Council of India's Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), a self-regulatory industry body, has sent out a report about the complaints it upheld in August 2014.

Of the 95 complaints received, the CCC found 84 ads 'guilty' of violating its prescribed code. In the case of some of the products, it was not just the ad but also the product packaging that was found to be misleading.

Most of the complaints received were received against products that belong to the health and personal care (41 ads), education (25 ads), teleshopping and automobile categories.

Health care brands that these objectionable ads belong to include Jivo Wellness (Jivo Canola), Marico (Livon Hair Gain), Bajaj Corp (Bajaj Almond Drops Hair Oil). Many health establishments' advertisements were also found to be misleading or false or not adequately/scientifically substantiated and hence violating ASCI's Code. Some of these are Sanjeev Cancer Hospital, Prakritik Chikitsalaya, Dhanwantari Pharmaceutical and Dr. G Wellness for diabetes among others.

In the education category, 25 ads were found to be objectionable. Some of the ads belong institutes such as CL Educate, Aditya School of Banking, Manasa Defence Academy and Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology & Management. The institutes that provide unsubstantiated claims of providing 100 per cent placement or claiming to be the No.1 in their respective fields include Excel College Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Medical Representatives, National Academy of Fire and Safety Engineering as well as the Northern Institute of Engineering and Technology (NIET).

In the teleshopping and the food and beverage categories three ads each were found to be misleading. Devi Anusandhan Sansthan (Dhan Varsha Sarwa Sankat Nivakar), Quick Heal Technologies (Quick Heal Anti-Virus) and Star CJ Network (Star CJ Alive) were defaulters in the former, while in the latter were Saj Food Product (Biskfarm), Gujarat Co-operative Milk Federation Ltd (Amul Butter) and Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul).

Four ads were found to be misleading in the automobiles category belonging to EMI Free Car, Maruti Suzuki India (Maruti Swift), Honda Cars (Honda Amaze) and Hyundai Motors (Hyundai Eon). The other advertisers that were found guilty of violating ASCI's code (complaints upheld in August) include eBay.com, TTK Prestige (Prestige Livestraw Water Purifier), Tata Sky (Tata Sky), Sitaram Shyamlal (Ret Greenline Juicer), Ricoh India, Hindustan Unilever (PureitUltima), Mantri Developers and Mebelkart Technologies.