Ad Campaigns
ASCI calls Kissan Ketchup, Oxylife ads misleading
MUMBAI: The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has called out popular brands like Kissan Ketchup (HUL), Bajaj Pulsar (Bajaj Auto Ltd) and Oxylife (Dabur) for misleading advertising.
ASCI investigated complaints against 342 advertisements in January this year, of which 110 advertisements were promptly withdrawn by the advertisers on receipt of the communication from the council. The remaining 232 advertisements were evaluated by the independent Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of ASCI that upheld complaints against 208 advertisers, out of which 83 belonged to the education sector, 64 belonged to the healthcare sector, eight to personal care, seven to real estate sector, five to the food & beverages sector, and 41 were from the ‘others’ category.
ASCI revealed in a press note that it exercised the “Suspension Pending Investigation” (SPI) option to fast track a complaint against an extremely offensive advertisement of an online content app. The advertisement shown as a user-uploaded content involving the use of expletive and swear words as well as the use of obscene language. The advertiser was instructed to pull down the objectionable advertisement within 48 hours.
Kissan Ketchup’s claim to "boring roti-sabji ko banaiye yummy kissan roll" was found to be misleading. It was observed that while the CCC agreed with the advertiser’s submission that ketchup, like a condiment, enhances the specific tastes of the dish, thereby making it appealing to the children. However, calling out regular “roti-subji” as boring was considered to be discrediting home-cooked food and also disparaging good food practises. The advertisement also contravened the ASCI guidelines on advertising of food and beverages.
Bajaj Pulsar was called out for portraying dangerous acts and manifesting a disregard for safety as ‘the visuals were likely to encourage minors to emulate such acts which could cause harm or injury.’
“PharmEasy’s television advertisement’s claim “Trusted by 50 Lac + Customers” was not substantiated. The advertiser did not provide any verifiable data or market/consumer survey data to support the claim nor was the claim backed by any audited report or independent third-party validation,” noted ASCI's press statement.
In the cosmetic and personal care category, Dabur was found to fall foul by contravening the ASCI guidelines for advertising of skin lightening or fairness improvement products. These were two separate advertisements of their cosmetic bleach brands. Another FMCG company misled consumers by claiming that its soap was recommended by doctors and is capable of reducing the risk of skin problems by up to 95 per cent.
For the month of January, the CCC saw misleading advertisements of several IVF hospitals and fertility clinics guaranteeing success and claiming to be the best. There were also a number of real estate advertisements making leadership claims which were unsubstantiated.
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NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
