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Of 144 complaints in November, ASCI upholds 113
The maximum violations of ASCI's code were found to occur 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 November 2014.
The health care brands that these objectionable ads belong to include Lifebuoy (HUL), Richfeel Health and Beauty, Goodknight (Godrej), Dr Batra's Homeopathy Clinic, Cordlife Sciences, Ishwar Ayurveda, AyurMana Centre for Advanced Healing, Medihoney, Forteus Herbal Clinic and others.
Education brands that released objectionable ads include Bright Career Academy, Arcot Sri Mahalakshmi Women's Institute of Management, Mahanadi Education Society, Ramanujan College of Management, Sakthi Institute Information and Management Studies, Kerala Small Industry Development Corporation, Shree Bhagwat Institute of Technology, Shri Maharana Pratap Pvt ITI, Academy of Future Analysis (AOFA) College and Devasthali Vidyapeeth.
Some of the advertisements by educational institutes were upheld because of the unsubstantiated claims that they provide 100 per cent placement and/or the claim of being the No.1 player in their respective fields.
In e-commerce, Snapdeal's advertisement on October 6 in TOI giving heavy discounts was upheld because as advertised, a large number of products were not available, or sold out or the rates were higher while clicking the buy button. The claim of "Snapdeal bachaey raho discount offer" was false and was not substantiated.
In the telecom category, ads from Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS) and Essar Group (The Mobile Store) were upheld. Two advertisements in the automobiles category were found objectionable - the brands include Nissan Motor India and Renault India.
In the foods category, three advertisements from Coca-Cola India, SABMiller India and Haldiram Foods International were upheld. The other advertisers that were found guilty of violating ASCI's code included Cinthol (Godrej), Marathon Nexzone, Aims Max Gardenia Developers, Mahindra Retail, Jothe Jotheyali, Hopewell Tableware, JK Cements, Pioneer Book, Virola Shoes, Videocon Industries and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance. The advertisements for these brands were pulled out because their claims were unsubstantiated.