‘Misleading Advertisements’ in India

The consumer world lives on advertisements and the companies live them. The wisdom of personal choice, analyzing and purchasing habit has deceased many decades ago. The advertisements steered towards ‘women and children’ manifestly who are the decision makers in purchasing products for themselves. These ads target the middle and lower middle-income groups who spend considerable time on watching televisions.

The MNCs started spending most of their income to advertisements by pouring brains to create cleverest advertisements. The recent strategy is targeting and 'advertising schools'. An MNC claims that they spend around 90% of their profit to this. The automobiles and electronic sectors are less damaging because they are not pinching the pockets of our groups and less possibilities to influence people preposterously. The most funny and ridiculous advertisements are from ‘consumer durable', 'children and women specific products', 'fashion', 'health and energy drinks’ (they call them like this) and insect repellents.

Misleading ads

They show that people will be forced into ‘life threatening’ conditions if they do not purchase them and their products alone are completely responsible for their healthy living.

Energy drink

An 'MNC' created a status symbol of having their product at every part of people’s life from kitchen to hospitals and from children to elderly people for 7 decades and the powder produced from some cereal malt and little milk. Now it has labeled and flavored their product for all age group and sexes; 1-3 age, 'women diabetic' etc. and it the funny part is there is a regular one for everybody. 

If someone does not buy or not having this product, others will question their purchase capacity and carelessness towards the health of the entire family.  Another drink very ludicrously shown in their ‘TV advertisements’ that it grew your children 3 times taller was a bluff and then stopped due to objections. Now it says your children will grow perfectly even if they refuse to eat anything we normally prepare with vegetables and nuts. Some say if you use their soap, your child will get 100% marks in exams. What a prevarication is this!

Horlicks

What is ‘clinically proven’?

The very obtrusive part of these ads is the models always appear with white coats flummoxing as health care professionals and often use 'clinically proven'. What is this? This is exploiting people with minimal knowledge on medical terminologies. Most of us tend to think this something very scientifically tested and proven but it is not actually. The terminology clinically proven means just by observing the respondents physically and nothing to do with lab tests or medical procedures, a doctor explains.

Low Nutrition

Millions of people are victims of these 'misleading advertisements' and millions of rupees spent by them that is not actually necessary. We all used to laugh at fairness creams assures 'fairness in weeks’ time for both men and women and none of us seen such people in real life but still we keep on buying them with persistent determination.

I would like to share my experience with a pediatrician who practiced in a district of Tamilnadu twenty years back. Despite of company representatives’ stimulation with gifts, he rejects and never prescribes of all 'formula foods', 'health drinks' and 'energy drinks' but he educates the mothers with the truth and encourage them to prepare powders and drinks at home with available cereals and nuts that would be richer than any other marketed for sure.

Our mothers and children are not just watching TV sets but they are educated by them. 'Sanitary napkins'/pads are other commodities we purchase that are unreasonably and excessively expensive. Please remember that these items are at least five times cheaper in the US than India.

We have a system of complaining misleading advertisements (NAMS) but very little stringent punishment given as far as my knowledge is concerned. I request the readers to brood over this issue affecting our family economy and the country’s as well. 

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