Parag Milk Foods Limited - Avvatar range of products

Recommendation: Upheld | Medium: Suo Motu - NAMS (Reech)

In the absence of required action on or before the prescribed due date, the ASCI Secretariat considered this complaint Ex-parte. Advertisement shows an Influencer promoting a health supplement brand. The advertisement does not carry a disclosure label that clearly identifies it as an advertisement. The influencer / owner of the brand has not disclosed details regarding any material connection, monetary or non-monetary between the owner of the brand and the influencer nor does it indicate whether or not the influencer was paid to post the details of the advertiser’s product. The influencer has not mentioned any disclosure labels such as "Advertisement", "Ad", "Sponsored", "Collaboration", “Partnership”, "Employee", "Free Gift", “Paid Partnership”, “Affiliate”, at the start of the advertisement. The advertisement is misleading by omission and exploits consumers' lack of knowledge.  Since necessary disclosures were not inserted in the captioned advertisement, this advertisement is in contravention of Chapter I, Clauses 1.4 and 1.5 of the ASCI Code, and Clause 1, 1.1(a), and 1.3(a) of ASCI Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media. This complaint was UPHELD by Secretariat.