New Delhi (India), 17th May 2023: The advertising self-regulatory authority ASCI issued a list of celebrities who failed to conduct essential due diligence, with cricketer MS Dhoni at the top, followed by comedian YouTuber Bhuvan Bam.
According to ASCI, there has been a considerable surge in complaints against celebrities as many of them failed to produce any evidence of due diligence.
According to ASCI, the number of complaints against celebrities increased by 803% to 503 commercials, up from 55 the previous year.
The report issued by the ASCI states, “In spite of the Consumer Protection Act now legally requiring celebrities to do their due diligence when they appear in ads, in 97 percent of cases processed by ASCI featuring celebrities, they failed to provide any evidence of due diligence.”
According to the regulatory agency, MS Dhoni is at the top of the list of celebrities who failed to do essential due diligence and were named in 10 charges of non-compliance. Bhuvan Bam, a comedian on YouTube, followed MS Dhoni with seven instances of noncompliance.
According to the ASCI research, gaming, classical education, healthcare, and personal care had the biggest amount of problematic content and violations of advertising standards. More than half of all breaches fell into one of these categories.
In fiscal year 2023, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory organisation received a total of 8,951 complaints. Out of these 7,928 commercials in various media formats were reviewed for potential breaches as a result of these complaints.
Notably, three-quarters of the advertising processed were discovered on digital media outlets.
