Companies claim fabric anti-Covid, sweets can fight virus: Advertising Standards Council
At the time of the coronavirus pandemic, several firms are promoting false and misleading advertisements to apparently capitalise on this situation of crisis by exploiting the fear of the virus in general public, according to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
A clothing company in its advertisement claimed its fabric came with health guard that is 99.94 per cent effective against the coronavirus. A sweet confectionery claimed its sweets could combat Covid-19 and improve the immune system. Similarly, a grocery chain said it would refund full grocery bill if their customer tested positive for Covid-19 within 24 hours of shopping at their store. The ASCI has found these advertisements to be misleading and told the advertisers either to modify such claims or withdraw their advertisements.
According to the ASCI, at the time when the second wave of coronavirus pandemic started spreading across India, many advertisers leveraged consumers’ fears and insecurities to lure them to make product purchases through their misleading advertisements.
A clothing company claimed that their fabric kills 99 per cent of the Covid-19 virus with HEIQ ViroBlock Swiss Technology 2. The advertiser claimed that “HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03 is an intelligent Swiss textile technology that is added to the fabric during the final stage of the textile manufacturing process. This has been tested by HeiQ with the very reputed Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne.”
They also claimed that wearing of their antiviral shirt will give protection to the consumer since viruses that come in contact on the fabric including Covid-19 will be killed and will not be able to reach the body of the consumer thus protecting him.
ASCI said these claims were misleading and no test reports or documents were available to verify the extent and scope of the antiviral activity claimed at the first use of the fabric, and up to 30 times washes of the fabric.
In one case, a well-known paint company in a visual in the advertisement makes a reference to the paint destroying virus (time-0.6-0.8 seconds), implying that the paint offers protection against virus.
The claims are misleading by exaggeration and are likely to lead to widespread disappointment in the minds of consumers, the ASCI said.
In August and September 2020, the ASCI looked into complaints against 317 advertisements, of these 64 were promptly withdrawn by advertisers. The Independent Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of ASCI evaluated the remaining 253, of which complaints against 221 advertisements were upheld. Of these 222 advertisements, 101 belonged to the education sector, 77 to healthcare, eight to food and beverage, seven to personal care, three to finance and investments and 25 were from other categories. Complaints against 32 advertisements were not upheld as they were found to be not in violation of the ASCI code. ASCI also upheld misleading ad claims made on various digital platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Along with the healthcare and education sectors, the finance and investment sector had some interesting cases too. ASCI received a unique direct complaint from a consumer regarding a campaign TVC run by a leading loan company. The TVC had people covering their mouths only till their nose with the mask. The CCC concluded that such advertisements misuse the COVID-19 situation and upheld the complaint.