Newsjacking the Olympians’ feats: ASCI slams brands for violating its code

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has censured brands that have been using the Tokyo Olympics medal winning athletes in their marketing communications while congratulating them on their feat, without permission from the said athletes. ASCI has said that this amounts to violating its Advertising Code.

The recent spate of medal wins by sportspersons such as weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, shuttler PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and wrestler Ravi Dahiya, have seen brands piggybacking on their success to cash in on the moment marketing opportunity.

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Manisha Kapoor, Secretary General, ASCI, brands that are using or even referring to the celebrities in their ads without explicit permission from them are violating the ASCI code as these ads can be construed by consumers to be genuine endorsements of the brands by the celebrities.

In the last few days, brands and companies such as Happydent from Perfetti Van Melle, Vicks from P&G, Apollo Hospitals, Aditya Birla Group have come under the scanner for coming out with ad campaigns congratulating the Olympians, while also sneaking in their brand messages.

This is a developing story and there will be more discussions in the coming days on the tricky business of moment marketing.