Idea IIN, Horlicks, Dabur, Heinz Ads Are Grossly Misleading: ASCI

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body for protection of consumer interests, has stated that Idea Cellular’s advertisement campaigns for promoting their Idea Internet Network (IIN) is misleading the public.

For the month of February, 2015 ASCI received total of 167 complaints against Indian advertisers, and out of which, they upheld 125 complaints. Interestingly, out of 125 misleading advertisements, 73 were related with health and lifestyle niche.

Along with Idea’s campaigns, ASCI also upheld complaints against Horlicks which is owned by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd. Additionally, several complaints against educational institutions such as Institute of Management Studies (IMS), Triumphant Institute of Management Education Pvt. Ltd. (TIME), and Institute of Finance Banking & Insurance (IFBI) were also upheld.

The Misleading Ads

Idea’s Idea Internet Network:

This particular complaint was against Idea’s advertisement meant for Harayana, where it is shown that a girl empowers herself using Idea internet. As per ASCI, this ad not only disrespects the state, but also gives a false impression to all viewers that Harayana doesn’t not allow its daughters to study and Idea Internet can replace a college degree.

Similarly, several other IIN ads were also reported for highlighting false, and misleading information.

Horlicks

The complaint against Horlicks was regarding mis-information pertaining to examinations. As per various ad campaigns by Horlicks, they are trying to give an impressions that consuming Horlicks can help the student get more marks as it ‘improve concentration’.

It seems that Horlicks had deliberately targeted the examination sessions which is going on, to leverage the fear and apprehensions. ASCI has upheld the complaint.

Glucon-D Volt

This specific advertisement received complaint that it showcases kids catching Glucon D tablet directly into mouth, which is certainly dangerous.

ASCI said, “The visual of the advertisement shows kids flipping the Glucon-D Volt tablet into the air and catching in the mouth directly, which is seen as a dangerous act and is likely to encourage minors to emulate such act in a manner which could cause harm or injury”

Dabur Advertisement

Few ad were released by Dabur, which claimed that Dabur Chyawanprash can give kids 3 times more power and immunity to fight diseases, which was again without any proof or evidence.

ASCI said, “Dabur advertisement claims that Dabur Chyawanprash gives three times more immunity which makes kids strong from within and increases immunity that is the ability to fight illness by three times, were unsubstantiated,”

Recently, ASCI has initiated a unique online training module, which teaches both advertisement students and consumers to recognize ethical and factually correct ads. Participants can learn more about ASCI’s guidelines and ethical way of advertising products.

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WhatsApp Now Has 800M Active Users, 100M Added In Last 3 Months!

WhatsApp growth is not slowing down as many believe, in fact if anything it has online accelerated. WhatsApp numbers are astonishing to say the least. They have now crossed 800 million monthly Active users of which 100 million new users have been added in last 3 months alone. Simply put they are adding over 1 million users every day!

Jan Koum co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp posted an update on his Facebook page announcing this milestone.

WhatsApp – now serving 800,000,000 monthly active users. Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing :)

Posted by Jan Koum on Friday, April 17, 2015

He highlighted the fact that 800 million are active and registered users who have accessed or used WhatsApp atleast once in a month!

If you look at users alone, meaning people who have WhatsApp installed on their phones, but haven’t used it, the number is far more than 1 billion. Their Android App alone has been downloaded over 1 billion times, and WhatsApp reached that milestone earlier in March 2015. Here is the tweet by Jan Koum from March 11, when he announced this milestone.

There is a reason why WhatsApp growth is only accelerating. First and foremost, after Facebook acquired them for whopping USD 19 billion, they have a parent company which has unlimited supply of cash. They do not have to worry about finances. Due to this, they are able to purely concentrate on bringing new features and innovations to WhatsApp.

In Jan of this year, they launched WhatsApp Web, where users can send and receive messages even through their Desktop. Earlier this month, they activated their much talked about free voice calling feature to all the users. And although, we found that their voice quality is not top-notch, I’d not be surprised if they have already become one of the global top 3 voice calling services given their incredible user base.

And if you look at some of the numbers that WhatsApp is churning out, you will not be left with any doubt that they are on their way to become the largest communication service in the world!

Have look at the graph below – These were their numbers in January of this year.WhatsApp was logging 30 billion messages per day – that average was over 50 percent higher than Global SMS volume.

Here is a look at Facebook’s time line over the years.

June 2009	WhatsApp founded by 2 Yahoo Employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum as messaging app which was alternative to SMS. This was first ad-free messaging client and launched at price of 99 cents (it also had 1 free year subscription)
April 2011	Get $8 million Series A funding
October 2011	WhatsApp touched 1 Billion messages per day milestone
August 2012	WhatsApp grows to touch 10 Billion messages per day milestone
December 2012	WhatsApp acquisition rumours are everywhere
January 2013	They reach 18 billion messages per day milestone
April 2013	It’s reported that WhatsApp has turned down acquisition offer from Google
June 2013	WhatsApp announces they have 250 million active users. They create a record of processing 27 billion messages a day
October 2013	350 Million Active users / 20 million users in India
December  2013	400 Million users / 54 Billion messages processed at peak
February 2014	Facebook Acquires WhatsApp For A Whopping $19 Billion
April 2014	500 Million users / 700 Million photos & 100 million videos processed in a day
August 2014	600 Million Active Users / 60 million users in India
November 2014	70 million Active users in India alone
January 2015	700 million Active users globally / 30 billion messages on average every day
April 2015	800 Million Active users globally

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Flipkart Partners With Mumbai Dabbawallas For Deliveries: But Does It Make Any Sense?

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal announced yesterday that they have joined forces with Mumbai dabbawallas for last mile delivery of their products. He shared a video wherein a dabbawalla from Mumbai is sharing the news of their association with Flipkart.

There are around 5000 dabbawallas operating in Mumbai, which are part of several ‘unions’. As per reports, one of the unions have partnered with Flipkart for products delivery.

How Will It Work?

Flipkart will create several delivery hubs covering whole Mumbai. It is being planned that dabbawallas will pick up the product from these hubs, and deliver them to the customer along with the delivery of their dabbas or lunch boxes on the way.

Hence, there will be no contract between the seller and the dabbawalla. Along with pre-paid orders, CoD orders will also be covered. Considering that dabbawallas doesn’t use paper or technology, but rely on their specific codes to operate, Flipkart will provide them specialized training and teach paper work to maintain records. Gradually, they will be introduced to handle apps and smartphones for advanced tracking.

Who Are Mumbai Dabbawallas?

Legend says that around 125 years back, a Parsi working in a bank somewhere in Mumbai decided to stop eating outside food and made a plan of getting home cooked food; and thus the first dabbawalla was born.

Over the years, they have performed their task of picking lunch boxes from homes, delivering them to the specific office, and then returning the dabba back to the home with amazing precision. Using color and alpha numeric codes, they have been able to cover the entire city using only bicycles and local trains.

Around 2,00,000 lunch boxes are delivered everyday by 5000 dabbawallas with such exact precision that their operations are ISO 9001 certified and honored with Six Sigma certification, which means that out of 6 million deliveries, they can err in only one.

Logistics experts have done research into operations, they have been invited to speak at IIMs and other management colleges and even Prince Charles have appreciated their amazing delivery mechanism and had famously invited them to his wedding.

The most famous dabbawalla is Richard Branson, who worked like a dabbawalla for a day.

.. But Dabbawallas for Ecommerce Products? Does It Makes Sense?

There is a reason Mumbai Dabbawallas have been able to deliver lunch boxes (dabba) without any error in the last 125 years: their focus, which is lunch boxes. Using codes and colors, they have mapped the houses and the offices with amazing precision and have been carrying out their operations without any hassles.

But now, along with lunch boxes, if they are asked to deliver ecommerce deliveries as well, then it may create trouble for them. And for the office workers who are expecting their lunch.

a) They use bicycles and local trains to reach their source and destination. Will they be able to handle large boxes of deliveries using these modes of transportation? And unlike Dabbas, the Flipkart deliveries will come in various shapes and sizes, Carrying these are not going to be same as carrying dabba’s for which they have specific sized crates.

b) They use colors and complex alpha numeric codes to map the addresses and to maintain the supply chain. It works because as of now, they are only delivering one product: lunch boxes. But with so many different products being ordered online, it may create a new issue. It will take time to get adapted to apps and mobile.

c) At a time when Amazon is experimenting drones to cover last mile delivery, it doesn’t make sense for Flipkart to crack a deal with dabbawallas in Mumbai as they are specialized in lunch box deliveries.

Mumbai is the economic hub of India, and a strongly connected metropolitan. Last mile delivery issue is mainly causing problems in rural areas where there is no other logistics channel to deliver goods.

As we had reported earlier, India Post is the savior of ecommerce industry in India, with their massive network of post offices and human resource, covering every inch of India. Indian Railways can prove to be an able partner for solving the last mile delivery problem as they are everywhere. The way Department of Telecom has partnered with cable operators for last mile penetration of their broadband makes sense, and will prove to be extremely productive.

Mumbai Dabbawallas are experts in delivering lunches at the right time, and entrusting them with last mile delivery of ecommerce products certainly doesn’t make sense. Not only it will dilute their focus, but it can also reduce their efficiency and definitely increase the number of errors!

Do share your views by commenting right here!

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