Advertisement authority acted against 101 advertisements featuring celebrities

New Delhi [India], May 23 : The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has processed complaints against 101 advertisements (ads) featuring celebrities. "Celebrities continued to appear in ads that were in violation of the ASCI code," ASCI remarked.

ASCI has taken cognisance of the misleading advertisements featuring, a total of 104 celebrities. Celebrities appearing in these 101 ads were found to be in violation of the celebrity guidelines as defined by ASCI. These celebrities could not provide any evidence of due diligence.

As per the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 due diligence is required before advertisements are made public.

The top five categories where violations were found by celebrities are personal care (22 per cent), food and beverages (21 per cent), illegal/betting (20 per cent), healthcare (9 per cent), and durables (6 per cent), authority highlighted.

ASCI reported 3200 advertisements directly to various regulators for violations of the law. The advertising authority has escalated 1311 cases of offshore illegal/betting ads to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Ministry of Ayush has reported 1249 healthcare ads for potential violations under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act. There were 493 other violative ads found by ASCI, it includes alcoholic beverages (82 ads), and tobacco and tobacco-based products (65 ads).

ASCI examined 10,093 complaints and investigated 8299 advertisements. The majority of violations were on account of misleading claims at 81 per cent, followed by ads that promoted harmful situations or products at 34 per cent.

Digital ads accounted for 85 per cent of ads processed, and had a lower compliance rate of 75 per cent, compared to 97 per cent for print and TV. 94 per cent of the ads that were processed were picked up suo moto by ASCI.

According to the annual report, 49 per cent of the advertisements picked up by ASCI were not contested by the advertisers.

A total of 98 per cent of cases eventually required modification as they violated the ASCI Code.

This year, healthcare emerged as the most violative sector, contributing to 19 per cent of cases, followed by illegal offshore betting (17 per cent), personal care (13 per cent), conventional education (12 per cent), food and beverage (10 per cent), and realty (7 per cent). Baby care emerged as a new contender in the top violators category, with influencer promotions contributing to 81 per cent of babycare cases.

The report highlighted, that out of the 1575 advertisements processed in the healthcare sector, 1249 violated the Drugs and Magic Remedies laws.

A total of 1311 advertisements for illegal betting were sent to the appropriate authorities for further action. Of the 1064 ads that ASCI examined in personal care, 95 per cent of them appeared online, with more than half (55 per cent), the annual report added.

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