Ajay Devgn ad for Dabur, HUL Rexona face ASCI flak

Actor Ajay Devgn's ad for Dabur Babool Ayurvedic Paste and Hindustan Unilever's campaign for Rexona Whitening were among the marketing efforts found as "misleading" by ASCI, a self regulatory body of advertisers. The Dabur campaign on television and Youtube had a message in Hindi which alleges that ordinary white toothpastes are cheating consumers and the cheating will stop by using its toothpaste, the statement by Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said.

"The advertisement featuring celebrity Ajay Devgan was considered misleading," it said. In the case of HUL, an ad for Rexona Whitening Roll-On in Bengali claimed the product can help get rid of dark underarms in five days was " inadequately substantiated and misleading", the ASCI statement said.

Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare campaign for 'Moov Advance Diclofenac Gel' with claims of being '#1 Doctor recommended active for acute pain relief' was also considered misleading, it said. Orient Electric's advertisement having cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni was found to be "misleading by implication".

"It was observed that while the advertisement claims to have 'flicker control technology', it visually depicts 'no flicker' or absence of any flicker," it said on Orient ad. VLCC Health Care's print and television ad claim 'Add figure to your shape in just one session' was not substantiated with treatment efficacy data, it said.

The ASCI investigated complaints against 408 advertisements in November, of which 137 were withdrawn by the brands on receipt communication from ASCI and 271 were evaluated by the consumer complaints council, it said. It upheld 248 of these complaints, and they included 159 from the education sector, 44 from healthcare sector, eight from personal care, four from the food and beverages sector, and 33 from the 'others' category, it said.

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