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In a temporary relief to Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the Bombay High Court has restrained an advertisement by Abbott Laboratories that allegedly damaged image of HUL's Horlicks Diabetes Plus product.


A bench led by Justice RI Chagla said, "The balance of convenience is in favour of the plaintiff (HUL). Unless reliefs as prayed for are granted, the plaintiff will suffer irreparable harm/injury which cannot be compensated in terms of money," the HC bench said as per Livemint report.


The FMCG brand alleged that Abbott Lab's circulated ads of 'Ensure Diabetes Care' product on various platforms. HUL said that in those advertisements, Abbott showed the blurred image of its Horlicks, and was shrugged and replaced with Ensure Diabetes. Abbott Lab's advertisement attempted to show Horlicks Diabetes Plus as an  'inferior and useless product', the compnay alleged.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/hul-slapped-with-rs-962-crore-tax-demand-for-rs-3000-crore-gsk-deal-40665.htm">HUL slapped with Rs 962-crore tax demand for Rs 3,000-crore GSK deal</a>

Notably, HUL's legal representative reached out to Abbott and sought clarity on the issue, but said that it failed to get any 'substantial' response from Abbott.

"We understand that the said advertisement is being used in your medicine /expert/chemist channel (‘recipients’) and has been widely shared within the said channel on WhatsApp. We would like to bring to your notice that such an act is illegal and unfitting for an organization like Abbott," HUL wrote to Abbott in an email.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/ccpa-imposes-rs-3-lakh-penalty-on-education-institute-for-misleading-advertisement-39900.htm">CCPA imposes Rs 3 Lakh penalty on education institute for misleading advertisement</a>

The FMCG company asked Abbott to cease and desist from circulating the advertisement. 

HUL said its Horlicks Diabetes Plus had been designed for blood sugar management and is one of "India's fiber-nutritional drinks".

The brand said it has a valid trademark for the product.

The next hearing is on 7 October 2024.

Bombay High Court restrains Abbott's ad, grants temporary relief to HUL: Report

Patanjali Ayurved's advertisement and sales promotion expenses mounted by 145.3 percent to Rs 424.7 crore in FY24. The company's ad expenses were Rs 173 crore in FY23.  The FMCG brand said that it will continue to strengthen its brand strength by onboarding brand ambassadors and increasing media spending.

"The company is determined to expand the strength of its brands through numerous activities – including onboarding brand ambassadors and increased media spends," the company said in its latest annual report.

According to Patanjali, "Fibre atta biscuits emerged as a significant player in India’s biscuits sector under the name Doodh, with a brand value surpassing Rs 1,000 crore".

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/patanjali-ad-case-supreme-court-expresses-disappointment-over-imas-minuscule-apology-40789.htm">Patanjali ad case: ‘Supreme Court expresses disappointment over IMA’s ‘Minuscule’ apology</a>

Notably, Patanjali's profit declined by 13% from Rs 886 crore in FY23 to Rs 765 crore in the previous fiscal year. The Ayurveda company attributed the loss to an increase in "employee cost, depreciation, and other expenses". The company's permanent employees headcount is 4,197 and the permanent workers count is 1,365.

Patanjali's exports also declined by 39%  to Rs 323 crore in FY2024 from Rs 530.7 crore in FY23 due to "intense competition in the international market," the Hardiwar-based firm said.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/delhi-hc-orders-baba-ramdev-to-remove-patanjalis-coronil-misleading-claim-as-covid-19-cure-38097.htm">Delhi HC orders Baba Ramdev to remove Patanjali’s Coronil misleading claim as Covid-19 ‘cure’</a>

Patanjali's edible oils declined from 80.3% (in FY23) to 69.7% (FY24). On the other hand, the revenue shares of the food and FMCG increased to 30.1% (FY24) from 19.5% (in FY23). The revenue from food and FMCG segment stood at Rs 9,643.32 crore in FY24.

"We have intensified our focus on increasing the revenue mix of our food and FMCG segment, which now contributes approximately 30% to the total revenue, up from around 20% last year," the company said. 

Patanjali's ad, sales promotion expenses soared by 145% to Rs 424.7 crore in FY2024

Patanjali Ayurved Limited has been embroiled in a controversy again, this time it is regarding the alleged "misbranding" of its dental care product. According to a report by Bar and Bench, the Delhi High Court has demanded a response from the company, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and the government over a petition saying that Patanjali's toothpaste displayed a "vegetarian" mark but contained a fish-derived compound.

Petitioner Yatin Sharma said that "Divya Dant Manjan" packaging has a green dot mark, an indicator of vegetarian status, containing "Samudraphen", a fish-derived compound.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/patanjali-ad-case-supreme-court-expresses-disappointment-over-imas-minuscule-apology-40789.htm">Patanjali ad case: ‘Supreme Court expresses disappointment over IMA’s ‘Minuscule’ apology</a>
The petitioner said it was a "misbranding" by the company under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act. 

Sharma, represented by advocates Swapnil Chaudhary and Prashant Gupta said the discovery was "distressing" for him and his family, as their family adheres to a strict vegetarian diet due to religious belief. 

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/sc-drops-contempt-of-court-charges-against-patanjali-baba-ramdev-balkrishna-39463.htm">SC drops contempt of court charges against Patanjali, Baba Ramdev, Balkrishna</a>

The latest case against Patanjali comes after the Supreme Court closed the contempt proceedings against the Ayurvedic company, Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna. The Indian Medical Association had filed a case against Patanjali saying the company crossed a red line by claiming his medicine could cure Covid-19 and maligned modern medicine by calling it a “stupid and bankrupt science”.

However, last month, the apex court accepted an unqualified apology from Patanjali and its representatives. The Supreme Court shut the contempt case but warned the company against future violations.

Fish extract in 'Divya Dant Manjan': Delhi HC seeks response from Patanjali over 'misbranding' of dental product

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued a penalty of Rs 5 lakh against Shankar IAS Academy for misleading advertisements regarding the UPSC exam 2022. 

According to the PIB, Shankar IAS Academy in its advertisement claimed that of the 933 candidates, 336 got selected at All India Level. The claim also mentioned that 40 candidates bagged the rank in the Top 100. “42 candidates have cleared from Tamil Nadu, of which 37 studied at Shankar IAS Academy,” one of the claims read. In the misleading advertisement, the civil service coaching institute said that it was the, “Best IAS Academy in India”.

The government watchdog agency said that Shankar IAS Academy advertised various types of courses but the information with respect to the course opted by the advertised successful candidates was deliberately concealed in the advertisement. 

Therefore, the consumers falsely believe that all the successful candidates opted for the paid courses advertised by the institute on its website, the CCPA said. 

However, Shankar IAS Academy in its response submitted the details of only 333 successful candidates against its claims of 336 plus selections in the UPSC exam 2022.

Notably, out of 336 claimed students, 221 took the free Interview Guidance Programme, 71 took the main test series, 35 took the prelims test series, 12 took general studies prelims cum mains, 4 took the prelims test series with some other main courses. 

The CCPA said all such details were not disclosed by the academy in its advertisement, resulting in deceiving consumers. 

“By concealing this important fact and misleading advertisement creates a huge impact on those consumers who are UPSC aspirants”. CCPA added, "The advertisement has violated the consumer’s right to be informed to protect itself against unfair trade practice".

Coaching institutes bombard newspapers etc. with advertisements soon after the announcement of the UPSC Civil Service examination results. These advertisements prominently feature the names and photographs of successful candidates. The CCPA has issued Notices to numerous coaching institutes for misleading advertisements wherein the CCPA observed that coaching institutes prominently use names and pictures of the same successful candidate in their advertisements to create deception as if the successful candidates were full-time classroom students of coaching institutes. After examination of various coaching institutes' submissions, CCPA found out that the majority of successful candidates had only participated in interview guidance programs or the free-of-cost programmes offered by coaching institutes.


Section 18 of the Act empowers CCPA that it shall ensure that no false or misleading advertisement is made in respect of any goods or services which contravenes the provisions of this Act or the rules or regulations made thereunder.

Consumer protection authority imposes Rs 5 lakh fine against coaching institute for misleading ad on UPSC result

Investment service firm Pickright Technologies Pvt Ltd has reportedly violated the advertising code by allowing research analysts and investment advisors to display the accuracy of their trading calls and the performance of their model portfolios.

According to a report by Moneycontrol, a sister publication of Storyboard18, Pickright allowed users to either pick a portfolio based on the returns generated or sign up for trading calls from Sebi-registered experts based on the "accuracy" of the calls.


A legal expert told Moneycontrol that by displaying past performance or "accuracy" of the calls by experts, the Bengaluru-based platform is enabling a violation of the advertisement code for RAs and IAs by the Sebi in April 2023. 

As per the lawyers and experts, quoted by Moneycontrol, the RAs and IAs could invite regulatory action for such marketing content. 

"RIAs cannot have a product that is meant for use by multiple people because their role is to make customized solutions for individuals based on their investing goals and capacity to take risk," Naveen Fernandes, the Public Interest Director on BSE Administration and Supervision Ltd (BASL) said.

<strong>'Advertising rules for RAs and IAs'</strong>

As per the rules, the RAs or IAs cannot ensure minimum returns,  target returns, or percentage accuracy till the achievement of target returns or any other nomenclature that gives the impression to the client that the investment advice/recommendation of the research report is risk-free and/or not susceptible to market risks and/or that it can generate returns with any level of assurance".

However, Pickright's page allowed RAs and IAs to display the accuracy levels of their trading calls.

Pickright has refused that it showed the performance of the individual RAs. 

Bengaluru-based investment service firm under fire for violating advertising code

Netflix said it closed major Upfront advertisement deals for several films and series including Squid Game, Wednesday, Happy Gilmore 2, Outer Banks, Ginny & Georgia, and Love is Blind, and live events including WWE Raw and Christmas Day NFL games. 

The OTT platform said it secured multiple international on-screen title sponsors including Pure Leaf, Amazon Audible, Puig, Booking.com, Stella Artois, and Hilton for Season 3 of Bridgerton.

In August this year, Netflix partnered with LVMH, COTY Gucci, Kaiku Caffee Latte, Aeromexico, Google, and Rakuten for the Emily in Paris series.

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/ott-news/beyond-squid-games-netflixs-plans-to-serve-super-fandoms-with-games-38384.htm">Beyond Squid Games: Netflix’s plans to serve super fandoms with games</a>

Netflix is gearing up to launch an in-house ad tech platform which will be tested in Canada in November and launched globally in 2025.

The California-based company said marketers can set up private 1:1 marketplace deals directly with the platform through Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360, or Xandr.


<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/dont-expect-advertising-to-be-a-primary-driver-of-revenue-growth-in-2024-or-2025-netflix-38400.htm">Don’t expect advertising to be a primary driver of revenue growth in 2024 or 2025: Netflix</a>

In the last few weeks, Netflix executed several programmatic campaigns with several advertisers such as Expedia, Ford, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz, Novartis, and American Eagle. The programmatic private marketplace buys are currently available in the US, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.

Further, to create a privacy-safe environment for members and advertisers, Netflix said it partnered with clean room suppliers Snowflake, InfoSum, and LiveRamp.

"Snowflake Data Clean Rooms is available for partners today, and InfoSum and LiveRamp will launch in the coming months," Netflix added.

From Squid Game to Emily in Paris, Netflix lands major ad deals for upcoming films, series

FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in its annual report declared that they witnessed an increase in consumer complaints related to advertisement in FY24 as compared to last year. In FY2022-23, 10 complaints were received while in FY24, 18 complaints were received. One complaint of FY23 is pending resolution at the end of the year. 

HUL’s annual report states, “We have a very robust mechanism to receive and address queries, feedback and complaints received from our consumers. We have reported above complaints in relation to ‘data privacy’, ‘advertising’, ‘cyber-security’, ‘delivery of essential services’, ‘restrictive trade practices’ and ‘unfair trade practices’

In FY 2020-21 HUL in its annual report, had disclosed that 28 complaints were filed against its ads with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). In FY 2021-22, 14 complaints were filed with ASCI. 

Hindustan Unilever in its results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2024 stated that the ad and promotions spends increased to hit Rs 1616 crore in Q4. In the corresponding quarter in 2023 the advertising spends stood at Rs 1311 crore. For the year ended March 31, 2024, HUL recorded Rs 6489 crore in advertising and promotions expenses.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd on April 24 reported 6% fall in standalone net profit at Rs 2,406 crore for the fiscal fourth quarter as against Rs 2,552 crore in the year-ago period. The Company’s turnover for the financial year ended 31st March, 2024 was Rs. 59,579 crores as against turnover of Rs. 58,154 crores for the financial year ended 31st March, 2023.


HUL sees rise in consumer complaints against its advertisements

As white-collar recruitment platform Naukri.com's marketing spendings jumped to Rs 22 crore (approx) in the June quarter of FY25, parent firm Info Edge India's Managing Director Hitesh Oberoi said the company will continue to splurge on advertisement in the current calendar year.


Naukri's ad and marketing spending grew to around Rs 22 crore because of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 in Q1 FY25.


"Even though our business is growing slowly, we were on IPL in Q1. That's why our marketing spend went up in Naukri. We were out of media for a long time and it's never good to be out of media for a long time," Oberoi added.


"We don't intend to spend as much money. Q2 and Q3 are also normally a lean quarter for advertising. In general, we will spend a lot more on advertising this year than we spent last year on Naukri," Info Edge India MD said.


According to the quarter-first earnings of Info Edge India, the company's advertisement and promotion cost soared by 17% to Rs 100 crore from Rs 85.5 crore YoY. 


The Naukri database comprises more than 100 million resumes, 14 million app installations, and roughly 22,000 average resumes were added between April and June 2024.


In Q1FY25, Info Edge's recruitment billings grew by 9% to Rs 431 crore, and revenue grew by 6% to Rs  472 crore.  Revenue growth lagged behind billing growth due to the slower billing growth observed in mid-FY24. Operating expenses rose by 19% Y-o-Y in Q1FY25, led by costs from IPL campaigns, Oberoi said during the earning call.


Overall, Info Edge (India) recorded 9.3% growth in its revenue from operations at Rs 638.9 crore on a standalone basis for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, compared to Rs 584.3 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.


The company registered a growth of 8.8% in its operating profit which stood at Rs 227.3 crore on a standalone basis in Q1FY25 as compared to Rs 208.9 crore in Q1FY24. 

'Never good to be out of media for a long time,' says Info Edge MD on aggressive ad spending by Naukri

An advertisement battle has erupted between one of the country's oldest insurance firms-- the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and a lesser-known firm ACESO Endowment Service Pvt Ltd.

In a recent advertisement in The Economic Times, ACESO Endowment Service took a dig at LIC, urging consumers to choose its ALIP service, instead. In June this year, ACESO launched Assignment of Life Insurance Policies (ALIP) for LIC policyholders which allows them to receive the surrender value of their endowment insurance policies while retaining their life cover benefits.

The ACESO ad mentioned, "Attention, LIC policyholders and LIC agents...Say no to surrender of your LIC policy instead opt for ALIP".

The company claimed that policyholders will get benefits of "immediate payouts, continuity of risk benefits and revival of legal policies" if they opt for ALIP.

In an obvious rebuttal, LIC came out with an ad on 13 August wherein it cautioned policyholders not to assign life insurance policies to unregulated entities.

LIC wrote, "Certain unregulated entities may be seeking to benefit at the cost of LIC's strong market position and sovereign guarantee, without any approval or authorization from LIC of Inda and at the cost of LIC's policyholder's interest".

"LIC believes that these products and services may pose a significant risk to policyholders' and their family's interests and are fraught with risks and may be prone to being misused," the LIC ad mentioned.

LIC chairman Siddhartha Mohanty told Moneycontrol that ACESO's ad is a "trading in policies". Mohanty added, "In principle, we oppose this. We will explore all options".

However, Ketan Mehta, founder of ACESO told Moneycontrol that LIC's ad could amount to contempt of the Supreme Court (SC) order – filed by LIC against Insure Policy Plus Services — in December 2015. 

According to Moneycontrol, the apex court dismissed LIC’s appeal, which cleared the decks for the launch of products like ALIP. “Any refusal by the insurer to assign policy lodged by policyholders will negate the SC judgment, which will amount to contempt of court,” Mehta said.

While launching ALIP, ACESO's head of research Ranjit Kulkarni said, "LIC's endowment policies are significant, representing 80% of annual issuances. However, with a persistency ratio of around 50%, many policies don't reach maturity. 

Kulkarni said, "ALIP offers a viable alternative to premature surrender, unlocking the policy value while safeguarding future coverage".

Ad war: LIC and ACESO engage in advertisement battle over policyholders

On the occasion of India's 78th Independence Day, the Ministry of Culture has launched an ad campaign called, "Har Ghar Tiranga". 

The advertisement features a range of achievements of India across sports, space, technology, and other areas in the past year. For instance, the victory of the Indian cricket team in the T20 World Cup against South Africa in Barbados, glimpses of cricketer Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and other team players posing in front of the trophy, athlete Neeraj Chopra winning silver medal at Paris Olympics, shooter Manu Bhaker bagging bronze medal in the Paris Olympics, visuals of Indian Hockey Team, the success of Chandrayaan 3  Mission, etc.

<a href="http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9mNUSFnp9As?si=-BlageLUmpbmLA92" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>">Watch video</a>

Additionally, the ad campaign showcased the rich diversity of India. From Leh Ladakh to Kanyakumari, the song comprises multilingual lyrics. 

The song also displayed the valor of the Indian armed forces, including the women in defense. 

On August 13, the Ministry of Culture organized the Tiranga Yatra in Delhi. The event saw the participation of more than 2500 individuals from all walks of life, ranging from youth, artists, creative professionals, and college students to school children, youth vloggers, officials, and members of the public.

Notably, Minister of Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat recently announced the third edition of the "Har Ghar Tiranga" (HGT) campaign from 9-15 August as part of the Independence Day celebrations. The Minister urged the citizens to hoist the Tiranga at their homes click a selfie with the flag and upload it on harghartiranga.com

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