ASCI terms Vodafone advertisement as misleading, upheld 130 complaints in April

Advertising sector watchdog ASCI upheld complaints against 130 misleading advertisements, including those of Vodafone India and Amazon in April.

The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) received 199 complaints in the month.

The ad regulator pulled telecom service provider Vodafone India for its claims of “Rs 328 + Unlimited Local / STD Calls for 28 days” and termed the advertisement as “misleading”.

Vodafone is India’s third-largest telecom operator based in Mumbai.

It upheld 73 in the healthcare category, 30 in the education category, 13 in the Food & Beverages category, four in telecommunication sector and three in the personal care category, and seven from others.

It also took action over two complaints against ecommerce major Amazon.

It found that Amazon ads for Woodland Wallet for Men claiming to be genuine was not “substantiated” and “is misleading by ambiguity” as it was not “able to ensure that the product is genuine.”