The intention behind this post is not to bad-mouth corporates and make the reader think that i am a cynic (Though at some level i think i am one :P ) . Anyway coming back .. I happened to realise that the professors of the course “Consumer Behaviour” somehow chose to skip the chapter on “Consumer rights and social responsibility” , so i did my due diligence on that chapter and came up with some interesting findings. Like always whenever i read up something worth sharing i make sure i blog about it so that some chap may get enlightened :P (Now, this is my social responsibility of blogging ain’t it :P )
From the Chapter in the textbook:
This is a quick short summary of the Chapter 2 of this book by Henry Assael titled “Consumer Rights and Social Responsibility” .
One of the stories from this chapter which shocked me totally was the 1977 “Nestle Boycott” story. I couldn’t believe my eyes !.. Though i remember reading some stuff about Nestle in the book “I too had a dream” by Verghese kurien … i never imagined that Nestle would get itself entangled in something as bad as this. Anyway the story goes like this .. It is about how “Nestle’s promotion of infant formula over breastmilk has caused the illness and death of infants in developing countries” . The blog link explains most of the story. It is murky .. and definitely there is some amount of truth to the whole thing .. else it wouldnt be running for decades now!
The next story is again about another bigwig .. Kraft . For those in India Kraft is the company that acquired Cadbury. This is more about how Federal Trade Commission(FTC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate the ads. This is about Kraft Inc vs FTC . Kraft apparently claimed that its “Kraft Singles cheese was made with 5 ounces of milk”. The ad implied that each slice contained the same amount of calcium as 5 ounces of milk while cleverly hiding the fact that most of the calcium is lost during processing. So even though the cheese slice was made from 5 ounces of milk since the equivalent calcium was lost the company was asked not to exaggerate the claims of calcium content.
This is another story … Kellogg’s introduced Heartwise to the public in 1989, but changed the name to Fiberwise due to objections by the FDA that the word “heart” in a brand name implied unsubstantiated health benefits. And kelloggs seems to be having a love-hate relationship with FDA anyway. More on Kelloggs here .. some of the stories are as recent as 2011 ! This one is a 2009 story about Immunity claims.
A lot of the stories involve food products .. as they are the ones who seem to claim a lot of things in their ads :).
From the website of Advertising Standards council of India
Yesterday when i was doing this consumer rights research i saw a paper-ad of ASCI and from then on i’ve been spending a lot of time reading about their work. Their fb page was where i started off with my research (if i may call it so) before i ended up at their casestudies that show where they’ve made an impact. ( Note: A lot of the text below has been borrowed from the casestudies link mentioned here). Btw this is not a propaganda for ASCI.. as i read on the internet there is enough criticism on ASCI as well .. mainly by companies and ad agency people. I am not passing a judgement on any of them. But these rulings .. open my eyes to what the big bad world of corporate is all about :) .. It is just to make young bschool grads like me aware of the dark side of the ad world :) . Just to show that when ppl like me go into corporate .. we can make a difference if we really want to :P … if there is so much “wrong” happening .. we can always “right” it No ? :P
This is a April 2010 ruling on Godrej Saralee’s GoodKnight Aerosol. The commerical shows “Aerosol as a fragrant and the actors are inhaling it” and it was aired on a children’s channel “Chutti TV”. Godrej was asked to modify the commercial by ASCI on the following grounds “Visual depiction of a girl inhaling a mosquito repellent spray”, shows a dangerous act which is likely to encourage minors to emulate them in a manner which could cause harm or injury.
This is again a April 2010 ruling about Maggi Tomato Ketchup. TVC shows – “an obese aged gentleman consuming unhealthy fried burger”, and makes a misleading claim that “Make India Healthy”. The TVC was discontinued as ASCI felt that “Inspite of the TVC being humorous, the visual of “an obese aged man eating a burger”, shown in conjunction with the claim, “Make India Healthy”, is misleading.
There is one is about Unilever’s Dove shampoo .. it makes a very interesting read.You may refer to the cotton ball test video before reading the rest of the text. Am sure you would say .. “Marketing bullshit” .. after reading this :) . Anyway the case ruling was about some such claim .. The Advertisement is claiming the efficacy of Dove Treatment Shampoo over other ordinary antidandruff shampoos, whereas, in reality the tests have been done between Dove Treatment shampoo Vs non conditioning shampoo and not an anti-dandruff shampoo ! ., Can you believe that ! Unilever is supposed to be the best marketing company on campus no ? !
The Dove Treatment shampoo tries to prove its efficacy by way of a Cotton Ball Test, wherein on moving a cotton ball on the hair washed by Dove Treatment shampoo, the cotton ball slides smoothly on the hair. However, when the cotton ball is moved on the hair washed with an ordinary anti dandruff shampoo its fibers stick in the hair. However, in practical realm when the cotton ball test is carried out the same results are not achieved. Moreover, in order to test the accuracy of the Cotton Ball Test, the Complainant carried out a “Cotton Ball Demo Nullification Test” with 3 shampoos. It was observed that the cotton does not stick even on the hair washed with a non conditioning shampoo contrary to the Cotton Ball Test shown in the Dove Treatment shampoo advertisement.
This is another intriguing case. I am pretty sure the company would have said that ASCI had infringed on the creative liberties blah blah. TVC shows – “a dry parched African site where the people (showcased as having no water and depicted as stupid) are scrounging forwater. The TVC then says, “if you don’t have water, drink LMN juice”. The TVC was withdrawn as the complaint said “The situation in Africa and India is extremely grave with no water. The Advertiser should not make a joke of this important situation. The TVC is in extremely poor taste showing African nation in a bad light. The voice over, “if you don’t have water, drink LMN juice” is ridiculous.
And not just these … there are more ..
- There is this one on Gillette trying to mislead viewers about OralB toothbrushes by juxtaposing the benifits of one brush on another leaving the door open for the viewer to misinterpret the value delivered.
- There are these rulings on Airtel Digital TV, Reliance communications that talk about the intricacies of those “Free unlimited lifetime” offers .. how they hoodwink innocnet customers.
- There is this ruling about the sprite commercial that shows two people captured by cannibals. This was pulled again due to racist accusations.
- There are multiple rulings on T.I.M.E and Career launcher about their No.1 in this .. No.1 in that claims.
- There are some on Volkswagen .. mainly about use of animals in their ads and possible repurcussions.
- There was another about Johnson and Johnson’s Stayfree secure ..
And all these are only the April 2010- October 2010 rulings .. mind you !
It is a bit depressing to see the much celebrated companies on campus and otherwise and famed ad-agencies commit so many mistakes so often. Some eye-opener this was :) . And i think i will definitely talk to the “Consumer Behaviour” professors about this stuff .. so that atleast next year the students can get to read about all this .. allbeit in a 1.5hr lecture :).
Time to study for the open-book exam now ! :D
PS: Btw i am hoping no corporate would sue me for bad mouthing them. Whatever i have written is either from ASCI webpage or from stuff that has been quoted already by press worldwide years ago. I am just doing a quick revision :D
