The advertisement’s claim, “It is high in protein and fibre” is false as it is not applicable for the serving size of the product and, in the context of a product positioned for weight management, it is misleading by ambiguity.
Also the claim, “Foods high in protein and fibre make you feel full and keep hunger pangs away” – Since this claim is linked to the claim of the product being high in protein and fibre, it is also misleading due to the reasons mentioned above.
Furthermore, the claim was also inadequately substantiated for the specific product being advertised. The claim, “To manage weight eat a breakfast like Kellogg’s Special K”, was considered to be misleading by ambiguity and implication. The visual of the celebrity when seen in conjunction with the claims is likely to mislead consumers regarding the product efficacy as the advertiser was not able to submit any evidence that the celebrity is in agreement with the claims being made in the advertisement in general, and where she claims this to be her experience in particular. This contravenes the Guidelines for Celebrities in Advertising.
Also, the disclaimers in the advertisement were not legible. The heights of the picture area was 386 lines for SD and 1090 for HD. The lowercase elements were measured to be of height of about 7-8 pixels or less for SD and 18-19 pixels for HD formats. The SD clip (provided by the complainant) does not comply whereas the HD clip (provided by the advertiser) does comply with the ASCI Guidelines for Disclaimers Clauses (VII) (i) (1) of ASCI Guidelines for Disclaimers (“For standard definition images, the height of the text lower case elements shall be not less than 12 pixels (12 pixels lines) in a 576 line raster.”) for SD version of the advertisement.
While the advertiser declares the protein and fibre content per serve size on the product package to enable consumer make an informed decision, such serve specific reference is missing from the TV advertisement. The claim “High Protein”, “High Fibre” does not qualify per serve basis – more so when only one serve of the product is likely to be consumed by a consumer within a day as the product is a “breakfast option”. The claim, “It is high in protein and fibre”, is false as it is not applicable for the serving size of the product and in the context of a product positioned for weight management, it is misleading by ambiguity. The stand-alone claim of “Foods high in protein and fibre make you feel full and keep hunger pangs away” is not objectionable. But when seen in conjunction with “High Protein” “High fibre”, the claim based on 100 gm of product is misleading by implication. While “eating breakfast regularly” as a generic advice for weight management was considered acceptable, the CCC did not consider the claim statement implying “regular breakfast” with the advertised product for weight management to be adequately substantiated. The claim, “To manage weight eat a breakfast like Kellogg’s Special K”, was considered to be misleading by ambiguity and implication. The advertiser provided details of the e:mail correspondence regarding the endorsement statements as agreed by the celebrity (Deepika Padukone) i.e. “Mere jaise, weight manage karne ke liye, eat breakfast every day”, “Stay healthy and eat breakfast every day”. It was noted that the celebrity has not used the product name in her approved statements and that the advertiser is required to be consistent with the celebrity endorsed statements in the advertisement. The disclaimers were not in accordance with the ASCI guidelines.
