- All of us, while growing up, were exposed to one or the other form of advertisements promoting various products representing several day-to-day usable items. Right from detergent soaps to nutritious drinks/beverages to skincare products to healthcare products to automobiles to clothing/suiting to anything and everything, so to speak. A few decades back, the media for these advertisements used to be the radio and the big screens in movie theaters before the advent of multiscreen complexes. Of course, we loved to watch those mesmerizing advertisements espoused by the artists showcasing the unique transformative abilities of several products. Recollect, how often have we not urged our parents to procure those very products?
PC: Quora
- In line with the fast-changing times, the universe has moved along so dramatically over the last few decades that the information technology-driven digital world has completely subsumed our everyday existence in more than one way. It is beyond imagination to comprehend how the digital world has revolutionized our collective conscience through newer technologies taking root. We now have social media handles to propagate alongside the conventional radio, television, and billboard advertisements still dotting the landscape, both urban as well as rural. As you are aware, ads can promise the moon and several of us have fallen to the far from true premise by attempting to embrace what was shown to us. Have we succeeded in obtaining the desired result? Hardly.
- Mind you, when it comes to health and medicine, we need grown-ups in the room. Miracle cures and magic potions are easy to sell unless there’s someone to check the hype. Misleading ads and too-good-to-be-true wellness products are now being taken seriously by courts and regulators. Thankfully, it’s happening as we read this since misleading advertisements were flooded into the screen, both big and small. For instance, the Supreme Court has taken a dim view of Patanjali Ayurved’s misleading adverts, which tried to erode faith in modern medicine while hawking its formulas to completely cure high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, obesity, and other complex ailments. Something had to give in, the SC has stepped in to address this glaring anomaly.
PC: Tratenor
- Meanwhile, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has pointed out that there is no category called health drink, as it cracks down on sugary beverages being pushed to children with this label. While a warm mug of malted milk or cocoa may bring up happy childhood memories, it’s just as junky as other processed food. Energy-dense, stimulating, and easy to swallow, these drinks have been sold to busy parents as nutrient-fortified goodness. Diets don’t work in this simplistic way, it turns out. In the name of micronutrients, food companies have gulled us into giving children a steady stream of sugar-loaded foods and drinks, priming them to crave more. Given the formidable commercial interests pushing these products, scrupulous regulation is essential. The SC has set the ball rolling, the executive/the legislature should step in as well.
