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ASCI bars Huggies commercial from being aired
The regulatory body has found claims made in the Huggies advertisement to be false and misleading
The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has upheld the complaint against Kimberly-Clark Lever's Huggies Dry Comfort commercial by barring it from being aired.
The commercial claimed that 88 per cent parents chose Huggies Dry Comfort diapers. ASCI found the claim to be based on an internal survey, which did not cover a substantial sample size.
Stating that claims by brands cannot be based on independent and self generated data, the CCC says that the claim made in the commercial is false, misleading and attempts to confer an artificial advantage upon the product by citing a non-independent source, which is neither reliable nor authentic in respect of rating or grading of diapers in India.
Kimberly-Clark Lever has withdrawn the ad, which was created by Ogilvy India.
The body observes that although involvement of consumers is on the rise, the summer months have seen a decline of misleading advertisements.
In March, a total of 120 complaints were received. After narrowing down to ten, only one complaint against Huggies was upheld, with nine other advertisers either justifying claims that were made or were proved to be within defined parameters and hence were allowed to continue with their respective campaigns.
Some of the other brands whose complains were not upheld are Sugar Free Natura - Diet Sugar, Pampers Active Baby Diapers, Gillette India Ltd., T.I.M.E., Godrej Hair Dye, Sensodyne Toothpaste, Castrol Lubricants, Listerine Mouthwash, Reliance Big TV and Set Wet Zatak deodorants.
For the record, the Advertising Standards Council of India is a self regulatory voluntary organisation of the advertising industry. The role and functioning of the ASCI and its Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) is in dealing with complaints received from consumers and industry, against advertisements which are considered false, misleading, indecent, illegal, leading to unsafe practices or unfair to competition, and consequently in contravention of the ASCI Code for Self Regulation in Advertising.