Government Stops Teleshopping Advertisements that Violate ASCI Code

MUMBAI: In a recent development, the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has ordered
broadcasters not to air advertisements that have
been found in violation of the Advertising
Standards Council of India’s (ASCI) code and not
complying with the decision of its Consumer
Complaints Council (CCC). While deliberating on
the complaints received in ASCI, the CCC
observed that many of the teleshopping
advertisements made unsubstantiated claims &
violated the provision of code for self-regulation
as well as provisions under Drug & Magic
Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act,
1954. MIB has in its Advisory compiled a list of
these ads and asked broadcasters not to carry
them in their respective channels and to ensure
strict compliance of the advertising code in the
Cable Television Networks Act (CTN).
The advisory sent by MIB states that non-
compliance of ASCI’s code of self-regulation is a
violation of rule 7 (9) of the Advertising Code
contained in the CTN Rules. The CTN code and
rules state that ‘no advertisement which violates
the code of self-regulation in advertising, as
adopted by ASCI for public exhibition in India,
from time to time, shall be carried in the cable
service’. Therefore, the ASCI decisions are not
just bound for compliance by advertisers but also
by TV channels.
According to Partha Rakshit, Chairman, ASCI,
“This is another feather in the cap of ASCI, in its
efforts to make advertising more responsible. We
were finding that some advertisers on TV
channels, especially Tele Shopping Networks,
were not complying with the ASCI decisions. We
submitted the list to the Inter Ministerial
Committee (IMC) of the MIB for their
consideration. Based on that, IMC observed that
any violation of ASCI code also violates the
Advertising Code enshrined in the CTN Act and its
rules. In short, IMC has directed that
advertisements found to violate the ASCI code
cannot be carried on TV channels.”
Some of the products in the MIB’s Advisory list
which violated the ASCI code in terms of their
advertising and in terms of their advertisers not
complying with the ASCI’s decision to uphold the
complaint are Fairpro (Telemart Shoppi Network
Pvt. Ltd), Ayurvedic Roopamri Fairness Cream
(WWS SkYshoP P'Ltd), Celebrity Lift
(R.T.C.Enterprises), GLO Intense Brightening
System (B. Lab), Rashi Ratan Topaz Ring (Quick
Telemall Marketing Pvt. Ltd.), Maha Dhan
Lakshmi Yantram Musli Power Xtra (Kunnath
Pharmaceuticals), Brain Smart GTM
(Teleshopping Pvt Ltd), Bhairavi Sadhana-
DevishreeFoundation Trust, Shaktivardhan
Vaccume Threapy, Sandhi Sudha Oil (Telemart
Shopping Network Pvt. Ltd.), MadhuSanjivani
(JMD Teleshopping), Addiction Killer (SK
Shopping Pvt Ltd), Easy Slim Tea , Maha Dhan
Lakshmi Yantram etc.

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