Cause Célèbre

Punishing celebs for misleading advertisements is unreasonable

Though A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that celebrity endorsers be punished—with up to five years imprisonment and up to Rs 50 lakh fine—if claims made in advertisements featuring them turn out to be false, the government should take a nuanced stand. While celebrities must be careful about what their associations, it is unreasonable to hold them culpable for misleading advertising

As per the Hindu Business Line, the committee is of the view that the existing punishment is not enough of a deterrent. However, for food product ads, Section 24 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 states, that no person should provide misleading representation concerning the “standard, quality, quantity or grade-composition” and “the need for, or the usefulness” of a food product or make any statement which “gives to the public any guarantee of the (product’s) efficacy that is not based on an adequate or scientific justification thereof”; Section 53 prescribes a penalty for such violations. While it is desirable that celebrities have a genuine experience of the product/service they are endorsing—US Federal Trade Commission stresses this strongly—the onus of determining whether a claim is false or true lies with the regulator. Claims made about a health drink are to be tested by the FSSAI. The interest of the Indian consumer would perhaps be better served with a Malaysia-like model, where the Code of Advertising Practice distinguishes between different consumer classes, and thereby imposes standards commensurate to the class’s vulnerability—”persons, characters or groups” held to have achieved celebrity status with children have to be very careful of their endorsements. However, they are not held liable for any misrepresentation. That is the advertiser’s onus—any violation is met with “withholding of advertising space from advertisers and the withdrawal of trading privileges from advertisers/ advertising agencies”.