Irrespective of the fate of the ads, the entire episode is intriguing for reasons more than one. According to an article in the business daily, Mint, a consumer complaint led ASCI to serve the notice. The ASCI’s public relations officer told me that the council, as a policy, never revealed the complainant’s name. While the practice could be defended on the grounds of security, it lends the entire exercise a sense of opacity. After all, a complaint could always be motivated and a result of a corporate rivalry. Dilip Cherian, who has been part of the ASCI in the past, admits it is a legitimate concern, but says the “truth often comes out when the complaint in pursued”. “If there is a pattern to complaints against a certain company, or if a set of people complain against the same company, it becomes clear that the complaint is a result of some corporate rivalry,” he says. The ASCI, Cherian says, tries to ensure that it doesn’t “unwittingly” become a medium to settle corporate scores.