Skip to main content

'Misleading' ads: Are our celebrities and public figures acting responsibly?

By Deepika*
It is imperative for celebrities and public figures to act responsibly while endorsing a consumer product, the Supreme Court said as it recently clamped down on misleading advertisements.
"Endorsements by celebrities, influencers and public figures go a long way in promoting products and it is imperative for them to act with responsibility while endorsing any product in the course of advertisement and taking responsibility for the same".
The Supreme Court called upon public figures to act responsibly, but the matter of advertising is not a recent phenomenon even though the Patanjali case might have brought back the discussion to the limelight.
While the concerns around Pan Parag or Pepsi might have caught the mainstream attention in the past, what goes unnoticed and unquestioned are the much more serious issues on medical interventions.
Recently an actress performed a stunt by staging her death, and justified the same by saying that she did this for the sake of raising ‘awareness.’ She was supposedly raising awareness for Cervical cancer which is already on the decline in India without any vaccination programs.
But due to her stunt/subtle advertising many young women, and many mothers shaken by the news of death of a young person from “cervical cancer” panicked booked HPV vaccination shots for themselves or their daughters. That one single day between her death and her resurrection stunt would have boosted the sale of vaccines like no other advertisement would have managed to.
There are many other celebrities who during the past few months have promoted and still promoting the HPV vaccine and one of them happens to be the brand ambassador of one of the HPV vaccine manufacturing companies.
What essentially gets missed out and lost in these advertisements is the mention about the harms that the HPV vaccines can cause. None of these celebrities bother to spell the risks out, or read out the vaccine ingredients for that matter.
None of them mention that cervical cancer is not at all prominent in women below the age of 40 or 45, and that the efficacy of the vaccines are not well studied and questionable. None of these celebrities mention that the vaccinator should disclose the risks and seek consent before administering the vaccines.
In the case of HPV vaccines, one need not go too far in the past to recall that seven tribal girls had died immediately after the HPV vaccine campaigns run in then Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, and controversy followed not only regarding the side effects from the vaccine but with respect to ethical violations of the vaccine trials as well. The HPV vaccine campaign was eventually suspended.
These advertisements are not recent and there is more than one celebrity who have been endorsing vaccines without giving due consideration to the risks that the vaccines carry. These celebrities from the movie and the cricket worlds have been the brand ambassadors of India’s polio eradication campaign as well.
They have been confidently sharing the message that polio eradication has been possible due to vaccines and that every child should get vaccinated, but the polio eradication narrative is far from the truth.
There are documentations available which clearly indicate that the polio vaccine can cause polio, besides causing paralysis and a host of other side effects. Polio has simply been renamed/rebranded to create the illusion of polio eradication.
The same celebrities have also promoted the MR/MMR vaccines and stated on camera that as many doses can be given. This is no science behind this statement but these ads are being played time and again. These celebrities have failed to list the side effects or spell the risks.
Are any of these celebrities be ever going to be individually called out? Will the Supreme Court in any way take cognizance of the whole matter of product endorsement and bring to book all the celebrities who have been promoting drugs or interventions without product information or reading out the package insert details?
Technically, it seems to be possible - Section 4 (b) of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 makes it an offence for anyone to assert a false claim for any drug.
While the issues on efficacy/benefits vs risks are being debated, can the Supreme Court at least ensure that these advertisements are pulled off the air?
---
*Digital marketing and content management professional with keen interest in public health policies

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.
Post a Comment
»

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai*  The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.
Post a Comment
»

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.
Post a Comment
»

Civil society flags widespread violations of land acquisition Act before Parliamentary panel

By Jag Jivan   Civil society organisations and stakeholders from across India have presented stark evidence before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj , alleging systemic violations of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 , particularly in Scheduled Areas and tribal regions.
Post a Comment
»

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”
Post a Comment
»

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

​ By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  ​The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.
Post a Comment
»

Concentration of wealth in India at levels 'comparable to colonial times', says new report

By Jag Jivan  A new report published in March 2026 by the Centre for Financial Accountability and the Tax The Top campaign paints a stark picture of deepening economic disparity in India, documenting a concentration of wealth that it argues is “comparable to colonial times.” Titled Wealth Tracker India | Tax the Top. Close the Gap , the compilation presents data from the World Inequality Database and the Hurun Rich List to illustrate the meteoric rise of the ultra-wealthy alongside the stagnation and debt burdens of the majority.
Post a Comment
»

Protesters in UK cities voice concerns over alleged developments in Bastar region

By A Representative   Demonstrations were held across several cities in the United Kingdom on March 28, as groups and activists gathered to protest what they described as state actions in India under the reported “Operation Kagar.”
Post a Comment
»

Beneath the stone: Revisiting the New Jersey mandir controversy

By Rajiv Shah  A recent report published in the British media outlet The Guardian , titled “Workers carved the largest modern Hindu temple in the west. Now, some have incurable lung disease,” took me back to my visits to the New Jersey mandir —first in 2022, when it was still under construction, though parts of it were open to visitors, and again in 2024, after its completion.
Post a Comment
»