MUMBAI: Reliance Communications, Volkswagen Group and Parle Agro have faced the ire of the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) as they were asked to pull of their advertisements in the month of June.

Asci also pulled up Scorpio Enterprise (Natraj Atta Maker) and Johnson & Johnson (Stayfree Secure Ultra Thin Napkins) for the claims the ads made.
 
The decisions were announced in Asci’s Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) Decision report for the month of May and June. According to the report, some brands went overboard in their claims and hence were asked to withdraw or modify their advertisements duly.

Asci asked Reliance Communications to withdraw two of its ads as they made unsubstantiated claims regarding both net calls and Reliance CDMA plan. They claimed that net calls are unlimited and the CDMA plan gives unlimited talk time. But both these plans are subject to certain limits which were not mentioned in the ads. Under Chapter I.1 these claims were not substantiated and thereby discontinued.
 
Volkswagen Polo Car ad campaign was pulled up under Chapter III.4, under the violation of the Performing Animals (Registration) Rules, 2001. This has been done with respect to the advertisements with the rhino as well as the buffaloes as both these ads portray violence against animals.

Parle Agro’s TVC of LMN Juice, which seems to have hinted at racism portraying the African nation in a bad light, was also withdrawn. The basis was that it had undernourished stereotypes as Africans which could be viewed as racist. 
 
Meanwhile, the Stayfree Secure Ultra Thin Napkins TVC was pulled up for its claims of a super absorbent polymer. The TVC also made a comparison with another product – Whisper Choice (which has similar orange packaging).

According to the CCC decision, the TVC did not denigrate the competitor’s product. However the communication misled, hence the advertiser was asked to modify the commercial appropriately.

The advert of Natraj Atta maker was also pulled up as it made three claims, one of which was that it saves grains up to 25 per cent which has not been substantiated. Hence post CCC decision, the advertisers promised the withdrawal of misleading claims.