ASCI Guidelines for D2C Ad Copy in India: What You Can't Claim

By the Monastic Media teamUpdated 31 Oct 20267 min read

Who decides what your ad can say

Most founders think only of ASCI, the Advertising Standards Council of India. ASCI is the industry's self-regulatory body. Anyone can complain to it about your ad, and it also checks digital ads on its own. If it upholds a complaint, you are asked to change or withdraw the ad. If you don't comply, ASCI can refer the case to the government and the platforms.

ASCI is only one layer, though. Under the Consumer Protection Act, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has its own guidelines on misleading ads and endorsements, and it can penalise advertisers and endorsers. On top of that, each category has its own laws. Your copy has to pass all of them.

The one test every claim must pass

ASCI's first chapter comes down to one question: can you prove it on the day the ad goes live? A claim has to be backed by evidence you already hold, not evidence you plan to collect. If ASCI asks, you must show the data. A complaint stands or falls on that file.

It also matters how the claim comes across, not just the exact words. A visual, a before-and-after or a voiceover can make a claim on its own. So can the combined message of the whole ad, even when no single line says it. A disclaimer cannot fix a misleading headline. Under the CCPA guidelines, a disclaimer must be in the same language as the claim, easy to see, and must not contradict the main message or hide key facts.

Puffery is allowed when no reasonable buyer would take it literally, like "the comfiest tee you'll own". Once a line sounds measurable, such as "lasts longer", "twice as soft" or "India's favourite", it is a claim and needs proof.

Claims that get D2C ads pulled, and safer rewrites

Keep a claims file for every live ad: the line, the evidence, the date of the evidence and who approved it. When a complaint arrives, you have days to respond, not weeks.

Category rules: beauty, wellness and food

Beauty and skincare. A cosmetic cleans, beautifies or changes appearance. Once copy says it treats, cures or prevents a condition, such as hair loss, eczema or pigmentation disorders, it moves into drug territory. Words like "heals", "repairs damage" and "cures" are where most ads go wrong. Talk about appearance and feel instead. More on the category in our beauty brand marketing guide.

Health, wellness and ayurvedic. The Drugs and Magic Remedies Act bans ads that claim to diagnose, cure or treat the diseases and conditions in its Schedule, whatever the product is. Ayurvedic and herbal brands are not exempt. Supplements regulated by FSSAI cannot claim to cure or prevent disease either. See our health and wellness marketing guide.

Food and beverage. FSSAI's advertising and claims regulations limit words like natural, fresh, pure, original and traditional to specific conditions. Nutrition and health claims must match what the label and the regulations allow. Your ad should never say more than your pack does. Our food brand marketing guide covers the creative side.

Influencer and UGC ads: disclosure is not optional

Under ASCI's influencer guidelines, any content where the creator has a material connection to the brand must carry a clear label. That includes payment, free product, a barter deal, a discount code, or being an employee. Accepted labels include Ad, Advertisement, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee and Free gift. The label must be upfront and easy to notice. Don't bury it in a pile of hashtags or hide it behind "more". On video, it should be on screen, not just in the caption.

Responsibility is shared. The influencer must disclose. The brand must make sure the content follows the ASCI Code, including every claim the creator makes. If a creator says your serum "cured my acne", that is your claim. Health and wellness influencers giving advice also need to state their relevant qualifications. Virtual or AI-generated people must be disclosed as not real.

When you run creator content as a paid ad from your own page, it is clearly an ad. The claims rules still apply to every word in the script. Our guides on writing a UGC ad script and AI-generated UGC vs real creators show how to keep scripts persuasive without inventing results.

Offers, urgency and the checkout: dark patterns

ASCI's code now covers deceptive design in ads, and the CCPA's 2023 dark patterns guidelines list specific practices that are banned. For a D2C brand, these are the ones to watch:

• False urgency: countdown timers that reset, or "only 3 left" when stock is not low.
• Drip pricing: an ad price that grows at checkout with fees nobody mentioned.
• Bait and switch: advertising a product or offer that is unavailable when the buyer clicks.
• Basket sneaking: adding items, donations or protection plans the buyer didn't choose.
• Disguised ads: ads made to look like news, reviews or organic posts without a label.
• "Free" that isn't: a free gift with hidden conditions not shown next to the claim.
• Fake reviews: invented ratings or testimonials, or ones that are not representative.

Comparisons and green claims

You can compare yourself with a competitor, but the comparison must be fair, like-for-like, based on facts you can prove, and must not run the other brand down. Showing a recognisable rival pack and mocking it is a common trigger for complaints, and those often come from the rival itself, who has the money and the motive to follow through.

ASCI's environmental claims guidelines, in force since February 2024, ask that green claims be specific, checkable and limited to the part of the product that delivers the benefit. "Sustainable fashion" across a whole catalogue is hard to defend. "Made with organic cotton certified by [the certifying body]" on one range is not.

A pre-launch copy check for every ad

Run the same check on your landing page. Many complaints come from mismatches between the ad and the store, which our D2C website conversion checklist also helps you catch.

• List every claim in the ad: headline, primary text, voiceover, on-screen text and visuals.
• For each claim, point to the evidence in your claims file. No evidence, no claim.
• Remove cure, treat, heal and prevent language unless the product is licensed for it.
• Check that before-and-afters are unfiltered and representative.
• Confirm disclaimers are in the same language as the claim, readable on a phone, and don't contradict it.
• Check that the price, offer and stock shown match the landing page and checkout exactly.
• Make sure creator content carries a clear disclosure, and that creator claims are in your claims file.
• Read the ad as a sceptical buyer: what would they believe after three seconds?

How Monastic Media helps

One in-house team in Surat scripts, shoots and edits the ads videos and runs the Meta and Google campaigns they go into, so the people who see the numbers make the next ad. See our performance marketing

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