ASCI prohibits 12 liquor brands from surrogate advertising

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has prohibited 12 liquor brands from surrogate advertising of their brand extensions.

Following the liquor brand extension advertisements that appeared during the IPL on OTT and print, ASCI suo motu took up 14 complaints. In 2 cases, the advertiser agreed to withdraw the advertisements immediately. The other 12 cases were taken to ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council (CCC). All these advertisements were found to be in violation of the ASCI code, as advertisers failed to convince the CCC that these were genuine brand extensions, or that they did not have direct or indirect cues of the category whose advertising is restricted or prohibited.  All the advertisements against which complaints have been upheld cannot be aired/ published unless they are suitably modified.

“In four cases, we have received a review petition with the advertisers submitting further data and arguments. These are under process now. Advertisements against which complaints were upheld are not allowed to be published or broadcast pending the review process” said Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General, ASCI.  

In December, CBFC too added a quantitative criteria for brands extension, similar to ASCI quantitative criteria to assess genuine brand extensions.