Real estate and offshore betting emerged as the top two violative categories in terms of misleading and illegal ads in the April-September period, as per the half-yearly report released by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Overall, the self-regulatory body reviewed 4,016 complaints and investigated 3,031 ads during this period. Out of these, 98 per cent the ads required modifications.
With nearly 2,087 ads found to being in direct violation of the law, ASCI flagged these ads to the relevant regulators. In the real estate sector, 1,027 ads were flagged to Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA). For promoting illegal betting, 890 ads were reported to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, while 156 ads were escalated to the Ministry of Ayush in violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (DMR) Act. Another 10 ads were reported for directly promoting liquor and four other ads to MIB for deepfakes.
“Of the remaining 994 cases that were formally investigated, 53 per cent of the ads were not contested by the advertiser on receipt of intimation of the complaint from ASCI,” it noted.
Nearly 34 per cent of the misleading ad cases that were investigated were from the real estate sector, while illegal betting ads contributed nearly 29 per cent share. Healthcare, personal care, food & beverages, homecare, education and fashion & lifestyle also emerged as the top ten most violative sectors.
Manisha Kapoor, CEO of ASCI said, “Our work in partnership with government regulators in sectors such as betting and realty is creating an impact. While there is a long way to go, such partnerships are able to create an impetus for better oversight.” MahaRERA penalised 628 developers based on ad violations flagged by ASCI. Several pages promoting illegal betting ads were taken down by platforms including, Instagram. ASCI also identified 50 websites and social media pages and 9 influencer posts promoting illegal betting apps and platforms, Sharma explained.
ASCI recently released guidelines to prevent greenwashing which involves making deceptive environmental-related claims. “Greenwashing will remain an area of focus for us. A total of 100 ads were reviewed and every single ad required modifications due to misleading green claims. In fact, 28 per cent of these cases were escalated to I&B Ministry,” Sharma added.
“With more advertisers volunteering to resolve complaints without contest, we have managed to reduce average turnaround time from 30 to 18 days. This has helped us step up focus on ads with higher-order violations,” she added. She pointed out that ASCI’s deep experience and tech-supported efforts are also evolving to safeguard consumer rights.