BigMuscles Nutrition Private Limited - BigMuscles Nutrition

Recommendation: Upheld | Medium: General Public

The ASCI had approached the advertiser (BigMuscles Nutrition Private Limited) and the influencer (Sahil Bhandari)  for their respective responses in addressing the grievances of the complainant and forwarded the details of the  complaint, verbatim, to the advertiser and the influencer with a request to respond to the same. They were also offered  an opportunity for a telecon with the ASCI Secretariat, which they did not avail and the influencer submitted his  response.  

The influencer provided a copy of the revised advertisement. 

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) viewed the Instagram advertisement  (https://www.instagram.com/reels/DW8f0MijW7T/) considered the complaint and the influencer’s reply. The  CCC noted that there was no response from the advertiser.  

The CCC observed that the advertisement featured an influencer promoting the advertiser's product, `BigMuscles  Nutrition – Karnage Pre Workout’. 

The CCC noted that the influencer responded by providing a screenshot of the revised Instagram post, which  included a disclosure label. However, although the influencer had used the permitted disclosure label  `#collaboration’, the label appeared at the end of the caption and was buried among multiple hashtags. As a result,  an average viewer could easily overlook it. Furthermore, the disclosure was not visible on a mobile device without  scrolling. 

The CCC further noted that both the advertiser and the influencer had been advised to place the disclosure label  at the beginning of the advertisement to ensure clear and prominent visibility. Despite this advice, no further  changes were made to the Instagram post. 

Based on these observations, the CCC concluded that the Instagram advertisement contravened Clause 1, 1.2 (a,  c) of the ASCI Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media. This complaint was UPHELD.