Ranveer Singh, Jacqueline Fernandez Violating Influencers’ Guidelines; ASCI Is Not Happy

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found Ranveer Singh, Jacqueline Fernandez and over two dozen digital creators violating its guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media.

Some Of The Offenders

The advertising industry body released a report which named 28 influencers including Bollywood celebrities and fashion and lifestyle influencers, such as:

• Jannat Zubair Rahmani for content on brand MyFitness
• Sonam Babani for Nykaa, FAE Beauty, and Kama Ayurveda
• Urvashi Rautela
• Aakriti Rana
• Kritika Khurana
• Shereen
• Tashveen Sehgal
• Nidhhi Agerwal
• Saaniya Chaudhari
• Anaghaa Bhagare
• Kanika Mann
• Karishma Sakhrani
• Ofelia

Apart from Singh and Fernandez, MasterChef India 4 finalist Karishma Sakhrani and tech blogger Shlok Srivastava also made the list.

Screening

ASCI screened 5,000 posts, stories, feeds from influencer accounts and noted the absence and inconsistency of disclosures.

Disclosure label refers to a statement which informs the public that a certain post is an advertisement. 

It also looked out for incorrect disclosure placement where in some posts the disclosure labels are not easily visible and the audience had to scroll down or click read more to see the disclosure.

Findings

It found 719 posts that violated guidelines.

Of these, 577 (80%) influencers voluntarily amended or withdrew their posts.

121 from the remaining 142 complaints were upheld by ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council and the influencers were asked to withdraw or modify their posts to which 86% complied.

The people in the report failed to comply with disclosure labels on the first instance and on routine checks thereafter.

Ranveer And Jacqueline

In Singh’s case, the non-compliance was noted in his posts on Manyavar Creations.

Fernandez breached the guidelines while posting content for brand Colorbar Cosmetics.

The guidelines require influencers to add disclosures in cases of posts promoting a brand. 

Not only that, but the labels should also be superimposed over the picture/video.

Fashion and lifestyle related posts had the most number of posts without disclosures at 29%, followed by cosmetics at 19%, food and beverage at 13% and personal care at 12%.

Escalation For Repeat Offenders

ASCI general secretary Manisha Kapoor said that the violations are taken seriously in order to protect consumers from misleading ads. 

It will continue to reach out to more and more influencers and brands to educate them on their responsibilities and transparency in advertising.

Repeat offenders will be escalated to sector regulators such as Food Safety and Standards Authority of India/ FSSAI, Ministry of Ayush, Department of Consumer Affairs/ DoCA, Food & Drug Administration/ FDA and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting/ MIB.