Hindustan Unilever Limited - Lakme

Recommendation: Not Upheld | Medium: Industry Member

The ASCI had approached the advertiser for its response in addressing the grievances of the complainant and forwarded the details of the complaint, verbatim, to the advertiser with a request to respond to the same. The advertiser was offered an option to seek an Informal Resolution (IR) of the complaint by modifying or withdrawing the claims in the advertisement, or alternately to substantiate the claims with supporting data. The advertiser was also offered an opportunity for a telecon with the ASCI Secretariat, which they did not avail and submitted their response. The advertiser in their response stated that, “Claim No. 1 is a hyperbolic statement – it is creative puffery, meant to engender consumer interest and intrigue in the Product. Further, the cosmetics industry is replete with products which use the term ‘weightless’ as part of the product name or product claims without any substantiating disclaimers… As weightlessness is an absolute statement/quality and not something qualified by degrees, adding ‘super’ as a prefix to weightless only further illustrates our use of the term as puffery, meant to catch the eye of consumers, and not a declaration that the Product itself is unaffected by gravity. Claim – “This new generation matte mousse feels incredibly weightless to wear all day” consists of two parts – ‘incredibly weightless’ and ‘all day’. Our substantiation for the first part remains the same as above. For the second, we submit that the Listing on the Lakme website is an outdated page (illustrated by the Product having been sold out for a long period of time). This page was meant to have been removed from the site, but was not due to technical errors on the backend. We must note that the updated, recent listing on the Lakme website and on other forums do not make claims pertaining to ‘all day’ application or use”. In support of their response, the advertiser provided examples of similar cosmetic products using the term “weightless”. The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) viewed the product packaging, the Website advertisement (https://www.lakmeindia.com/products/lakme-9to5-weightless-mousse-lip-and-cheek-color?srsltid=AfmBOorf9UKsqnxHHsmu--KNHfML7ffOb9f37IFylOyw3AOfb0k4OAOP), considered the complaint, and the advertiser’s response. The CCC discussed that the claims surrounding the term 'weightless' are an obvious exaggeration meant to catch the eye of consumers. They emphasize the product's unique mousse-like texture and the lightness it provides when applied to the skin. These claims are puffery and are not meant to be taken literally, as they are unlikely to mislead consumers about the product's actual properties. The CCC noted the advertiser’s response that the claim of “all day” has been withdrawn and is not being used in their advertisements. Based on these observations, the CCC concluded that the product packaging and the advertisement claim – “This new generation matte mousse feels incredibly weightless to wear all day”, and the claims in the advertisement, “Weightless Mousse Lip and Cheek Color”, “Lakmé’s first-ever lip colour in a mousse texture is super weightless and can be used as a cheek tint too”, are not objectionable. The said claims are not in contravention of Chapter I of the ASCI Code. This complaint was NOT UPHELD.