UK watchdog raps Indian restaurant for misleading ad

LONDON: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rapped an Indian restaurant for falsely claiming that it had delivered food to 11, Downing Street, the residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sharif Chaudhary, the owner of the restaurant in Bushy, Hertfordshire, claimed in an advertisement in the "Watford Observer", a local newspaper, recently that he owned India Garden for 27 years and it had "delivered a takeaway to number 11, Downing Street on one occasion, following a word-of-mouth recommendation". The advertisement was challenged by one K Chaudhary, who owned the restaurant until 2005.

"It was wrong of the present owner to claim that he owned the restaurant for 27 years," he said in his complaint. Secondly, he protested to the ASA and challenged the claim that India Garden had supplied a takeaway to 11, Downing Street, because he believed it referred to a visit he had made to the high-profile area for reasons unconnected to the restaurant business.

K Choudhury explained to ASA that he had visited 11, Downing Street in 1993 for a reception held by Dame Angela Rumbold about charity work and not because of the India Garden Restaurant, which he owned at the time. He also said that he owned several restaurants at that time and had taken some food along for his own consumption in 11, Downing Street.