Real estate emerged as the sector with the highest exploitations of advertising norms between April and September this year, according to the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci). In its “Half-Yearly Complaints Report 2024-25”, the self-regulatory body said that of all the 3031 ads investigated, around 34% were from the real estate sector alone. It was followed by 29% ads from illegal betting and 8% from the healthcare sector.
Asci said that for the real estate sector, 1,027 ads were shortlisted and sent to the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) for review. “99% of the ads shortlisted were found to be in violation of the MahaRERA Act,” it said. For violations, MahaRERA penalised 628 real estate developers, imposing a total penalty of Rs 88.90 lakh.
Asci also said that in 59% of such cases, there was prompt compliance with advertisers either modifying their ads to include the missing information or withdrawing them entirely.
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In illegal betting and gambling, Asci reviewed and sent 890 ads to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for further action. Out of these, 831 Instagram posts displayed betting tickers, which directed viewers to offshore betting platforms.
“These tags and tickers appear on fan and community pages on Instagram, with some page owners reportedly earning daily amounts between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 by featuring these logos,” it said.
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“Additionally, 50 websites and social media pages were identified as promoting illegal betting apps and platforms, and nine influencer posts were found endorsing illegal betting services.”
Asci also said that it reviewed 100 advertisements for potential violations of the Asci Guidelines for green claims. “Majority of the violative ads were from the Home Care sector, where products claimed to be eco-friendly/ environment-friendly, without adequate support data,” it said.
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