ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council upholds complaints against 12 ads during March and April 2012

During March and April 2012, the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of ASCI upheld complaints against 12 advertisements, most of them part of the healthcare and/or personal hygiene sector.

The brands against which complaints were upheld were: Euro Fashion Inners and Vodafone (both for being likely to cause offence); Sareen Hair Clinic, Fit and Fine Slimming Centre and Beauty Clinic, Fair Pharma, Stoss Welle Healthcare and Shree Baidyanath Ayurved Bhavan (all for absence of supporting clinical information); Smart Careers (BBS/BBA) and Career Launcher (IIM Calls) (both for absence of proof of claim); Dainik Jagran (on the premise that city data cannot and must not be referred to as state’s data for one advertisement, and using visual aids to create the illusion of its leadership and gap between the newspaper brands in another); Pernod Ricard (visual depiction of a ‘bottle’ in Absolut ad, which goes against the ban on alcohol advertising).

During the month of March, the CCC also received complaints against advertisements of Perfetti Van Melle, Gulf Oil India, HUL’s Vim Detergent Bar, Cadbury India’s Perk Chocolate, Johnson’s Baby Top-To-Toe Wash, HUL’s Close Up toothpaste, Parle Mango Bite, Uninor, HUL’s Axe Shower Gel, and Tata Chemical Ltd’s Tata Swach Water Purifier. As these advertisements did not contravene ASCI’s codes or guidelines, the complaints were not upheld.