Watch: Ads that the advertising watchdog has pulled up for misleading information (Patanjali leads)
The ASCI has upheld 109 complaints in all.
The advertising industry is known to exaggerate. If one were to believe the things that pop up in commercials, the belief that soft drinks help you jump out of planes will be on the lower end of the wide spectrum of advertising hyperbole.
But sometimes companies take it too far. In May 2016, the Advertising Standards Council of India received 155 complaints, of which it upheld 109.
Ten of these were against yoga teacher-turned-entrepreneur Ramdev's Patanjali, which had also led to six complaints earlier, in April and March. Patanjali's misdemeanour was "misleading by exaggeration", as the company was unable to prove its claims in its advertising for products such as Divya Swasari Pravahi, Dant Kanti and Kesh Kanti.
Pepsi's campaign "Har Bottle par Paytm Cash pakka" (video above), which was run earlier in 2016, was found misleading by the ASCI since not all bottles actually guaranteed a cash back.
Below are Patanjali's ads for Kesh Kanti, the hair care product, in which Ramdev claims being told by someone that despite spending lakhs of rupees on other shampoos nothing worked, while Patanjali shampoo is the cheapest and best.
In March 2016, Britannia, released a commercial for its 100% Whole Wheat Bread, which the watchdog found was inaccurate, since the wheat content is believed to range from 50 to 65 per cent.
Yum! Restaurants, which runs Pizza Hut in India, released a campaign titled "199 Any Deal", which was found "misleading by omission".
Voltas was also found guilty of omission for a campaign that said two of its air conditioners can be run for the price of one – because the comparison was between Voltas's inverter AC and a normal start-stop air conditioner.
HUL was pulled up for misleading claims in ads for Fair & Lovely and Sunsilk shampoos. Here is the ad for Sunsilk claiming to ensure "long hair in three months".
Apart from these, LG was pulled up for claims made in advertising for water purifiers and ACs, Havells for its Standard Fans ad, Emami for Navratna Tel (for claiming to work in "two minutes"). A full list of the brands named can be found here and here.
