Britain's advertising watchdog has rapped Nepali TV, a satellite channel that asserts to broadcast to 58 countries
LONDON: Britain's advertising watchdog has rapped Nepali TV, a satellite channel that asserts to broadcast to 58 countries, for violating the standards code for a recent advertisement that made unsubstantiated health and nutrition claims.
Investigators of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) spotted the recent advertisement related to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), maker of the Horlicks drink.
The advertisement asserted on the channel that children who drank Horlicks were "taller, stronger, sharper" than other children. However, ASA said that Nepali TV did not offer any comment during investigations but eventually withdrew the advertisement.
GSK explained to the watchdog that the advertisement had been broadcast on Nepali TV without their knowledge or consent as part of a re-broadcast deal organised by Nepali TV with a broadcaster in Bangladesh.
GSK said Horlicks was sold in Bangladesh on a nutritional platform and was carefully fortified. It contended the claims were true for children in that part of the world and were supported by clinical studies undertaken by India's National Institute of Nutrition.
The company added that the product complied with the regulatory requirements in Bangladesh and the product was not available in the UK and that they had no intention of advertising it in Britain.
The ASA noted that Nepali TV held a licence from the UK regulator Ofcom and was required by the conditions of that licence to comply with the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code.
"We considered that the unavailability in the UK of the product intended for the Bangladesh market did not mean the Code did not apply, especially given that Horlicks-branded products are available in the UK," the ASA said.
"We were concerned that Nepali TV was broadcasting ads without the advertiser's consent ... Because we had seen no evidence to substantiate the claims, we considered that the ad was misleading and that Nepali TV should not have broadcast it in the UK," it said.
The ASA directed Nepali TV not to broadcast the advertisement again in its present form.
The ASA added: "We reminded Nepali TV of its Ofcom licence obligations and of the requirement to have adequate compliance procedures.
We reminded them that they should broadcast only those ads that had been cleared by Clearcast or a similar compliance officer," the Advertising Standards Agency said.
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