Are advertisers pre-programmed to exaggerate? Ask a random sample of consumers, and they will respond with a resounding ?Yes!? Ad industry professionals themselves, however, are given to arguing that their job is about presenting the truth in a manner that optimises economic outcomes. Thus, it is a crucial aspect of the information economy, ensuring that word of what is good gets around faster, thereby generating signals and transactions that result in an efficient allocation of overall resources. The more throbbing an ad market is, by this logic, the better would capital and other factors of production be put to use. But do the actions of advertisers pulled up for ?misleading? ads by the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) justify the theory?
Hearteningly, to a large extent, yes. The prominent cases of Asci wagging its finger last year were against Hindustan Unilever?s Vim, Henkel?s Pril and Procter & Gamble?s Tide. The ad for Vim?s dishwash liquid allegedly misled consumers with its claim that just ?one drop is enough?, since its lime power was ?10 times? greater than the bar. Likewise, the ad for Pril also spoke of the wonders of a single drop?s efficacy. The ad for Tide, too, tried to shore up sales with ?one tablespoon? of the powder. Doubtless, all these ads were based on the market insight that the Indian housewife is consumed by quantitative savings in the use of household materials, and a ?just one? this, or a ?single? that, has strong appeal. Yet, as Asci?s supporters argue, the objective of preserving the credibility of advertising per se should take precedence over claims that cannot be substantiated under real usage conditions. So, it is reassuring that these advertisers have taken Asci?s caution seriously. Asci is the ad industry?s self-regulatory body, and self-regulation, advertisers must recognise, is better than letting advertising become vulnerable to intrusive governmental oversight. Moreover, it may actually help advertisers to move their messages and markets beyond blatant quantitative comparisons. There was a time that health food marketers were throwing figures in the air. The most enduring and engaging brand messages, however, employ much more subtlety. ?All taste, no guilt?, for example, works wonderfully for a low-fat cuisine chain, with calorific data confined to the fineprint.
