A recent report by Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) found that nearly 800 advertisements from the gaming and crypto sectors had violated guidelines. According to the Annual Complaints Report FY21-22 of ASCI, 383 gaming ads and 394 advertisements for virtual digital assets were reported for violation of the guidelines issued by the industry watchdog. The gaming and digital asset fields emerged among the top six violative sectors.
Gaming saw 95 percent of the violative ads changed, while digital assets saw 94 percent of their reported ads modified. The use of influencers in violative ads in cryptocurrency-related ads that were reported also found place among the reported cases. Nearly a quarter of the promotional campaigns of digital assets that did not follow the ASCI guidelines involved an influencer.
“Most advertisements looked into under this sector were influencer disclosure cases where influencers were talking about how to navigate the VDA platforms, or sharing information about the category, and how the platform is easy to operate,” the report stated.
“Guaranteed earnings, performance comparisons with other modes of investments like Gold and stock investment followed. The other commonly found claims revolved around promoting the category through referral program claims like refer a friend and win,” the report added.
Nearly three-fourths of the advertisements were taken up suo moto, with the ASCI also stepping up automated surveillance using digital tools with an eye on emerging digital categories, and advertisements posted on digital channels like YouTube, Instagram and more.
Among other categories which did not adhere to the ASCI standards, the education sector was a topper with 99 percent of the ads looked at needing modification. Around one-third of such ads belonged to that sector alone. Healthcare followed, with 16 percent share of the ads, and the personal care products category rounded up the top three sectors at 11 percent.
The council processed a total of 5,532 ads in FY 2021-2022.
