I talked about the JK Super Cement Ad in my last post. This ad is special as it is plain stupid. However, a recent ad on TV takes a direct dig on the competitor’s product which is not something that has been seen on the Indi-Ad scene. The indirect references in ads have been in plenty but never ever I have seen such a direct attack. If you are familiar with Tide ads, their USP has been to highlight the superior technology which make the clothes more white/bright as compared to the other detergents.
The new campaign that I am referring to has been started by Rin, a product of Hindustan Unilever Limited. It is a direct attack on the Tide Naturals product by Procter & Gamble. Note that when I say a direct attack – it means an uncensored visual shows the competitor product and then highlights how the other product is better then the former. The sequence of the ad is as follows
- Two ladies are standing on a bus stop, waiting to pick their kids from the school bus.
- Both are carrying their shopping basket/bag with them.
- Lady 1 has Tide Naturals in her bag.
- Lady 2 has Rin in her bag
- Both ladies have a look at each other’s bag and Lady 1 boasts that Tide has a good fragrance and provide better whiteness/brightness to the clothes
- In the meantime, the school bus arrives and it’s shown that the white shirt of Lady 2′s kid is strikingly brighter and whiter then the Lady 1′s kid.
- Lady 1 gets astonished by the whiteness seen.
- Lady 2′s kid reacts by asking he mother, as to why is the other lady so observant and amazed
- There is a disclaimer during the ad that the analysis has been done by an independent agency
- It’s then claimed that now there is promotional price of Rs. 25 on Rin as opposed to the earlier Rs. 35.
As you can notice, there is a direct mention of the competitor product along with the visuals. Earlier we had seen, how a row was created when Onida referred to Nokia in it’s ad though indirectly . This one seems to be an absolute direct attack. It is difficult to say if the ad will continue on TV. Tide would definitely come out with a protest. However, I think the damage is already done. The main point about the reduced price of Rin would definitely catch the consumer’s eye benefiting HUL.
The ad is as given below
Pour in your comments on what you feel about this ad and whether you would like to see more ads of this kind on the Indian Television.
Related posts:
- Chevrolet Cruze Advertisement
- The Nostalgic Doordarshan Era
- The JK Super Cement Ad – Sheer Advertising Brilliance
I have a question….i.e Isnt it a case of Inneudo-defamention? Actually i m just a first year BBA student.
A request to the learned Seniors to please answer me…
I watch this ad and shocked, how can they proceed. Anyhow it is an unhealthy competition on the market.
This add is kind of confusing. if you carefully saw the AD end of the AD you will confused who (lady1 or lady2) using rin or tide!
Yes it is new as per the Indian advertising but it is good because, Now it will be a big challenge for creative agencies to show their creativity to attract customers.
@shashank
Yes its quit difficult to create new ideas but it doesnt means that u turns on to unhealthy and unethical competition…….it shows how rin shatterd with the tied popularity…..
I dont know what P&G doing…and takin any step against this ad but m damn sure this ad will sure get off from tv….
Its comparative advertisng thats been shown.But according to the standard rules,I dont think it is right to actually mention the competetiors product name or the package design..
HUL being such a popular brand among its masses,amazes me with this ad, that actually compares both the prodcut so directly and claims superiorty
dont find it ethical
TYBMM
St.Andrews
whatever hul has done is perfectly wrong as per law, but i think they have succeeded in their purpose of spreading the knowledge of lesser price of rin. also full swing adv in 3 holidays will definitely help them and some people will go for it. rin sales are confirmed to rise, but thru wrong means. . .
P&G will surely take legal action to stop this ad to be aired.. But HUL has allready done a lot of damage to Tide brand image and the message of RIN price reduction and better quality over tide has allready been set in every consumers mind.. so this is going to hurt TIDE.. now what most of us are waiting for is TIDE response.. I m sure they will be more creative and they will keep the war ON. This is new to indian ad’s but this has been followed by few companies internationaly eg. Audi ads. HUL is investing heavily on the idea and there are plans are to make a big dent in Market share of tide.. Nice aggressive strategy. I dont think Tide has any legal grounds directly but they can stop the ad to be aired by other routes.. Ya its not ethical, but who cares, we all are here to compete..
the damage is done. the ad is very disparaging to tide naturals users. it will kind of create a confusion in their mind and lead to dis-satisfaction unless Tide comes out with a strong answer o the ad. I however doubt P&G would do that. If they react they will react with something that will hurt HUL the most. P&G can hit HUL in shampoos where HUL leads, in soaps where HUL has expensive brand like Dove. I think it will be soon. Remember the Pepsi ThumsUp and Coke days. Internationally Pepsi and Coke fight it out with comparative advertising features to features. However in the Rin & Tide ad the disclaimers are mentioned so small you can hardly read. It must be made mandatory that the disclaimer or procedure be given at the end of ad and it should be atleast 1/4th of the time of ad.
Hi,
I think HUL is trying to target Tide Naturals rather than Tide.. And it doesn’t come under any violations if it can come true on the lab tests that HUL is speaking about..
http://schizophrenicthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/hungama-of-rin-vs-tide-campaign.html
Sajja
I think HUL is completely right in bringing out this add. We must give kudos to HUL for their courage in bringing such adds. They have done there home work well before coming out with this add. There is no violation of ASCI Regulations as nowhere the add denigrates P & G’s Tide Naturals. Again in the court of Law looking into recent Judgements in Colgate v Anchor Case, Horlicks v Complan case, it goes to show that mere puffing one’s product is not wrong. provided the puffing must be true. In this case the claim by HUL is fully backed by independent Lab tests, so there is no question of falsity. In the era of competition commercial speech must be allowed in order to give the consumers better option and knowledge about the competitiors products. We must congratulate the HUL advertisement team for bringing such a add which at the same time comparing between two products no where denigrates or mutliates the image of other products. Great work HUL………):-
Comparative advertising thoe being unethical is good because consumer’s benefit as they come to know the whole truth which is often not revealed by the brands.
It also puts manufaturer’s on thier toes.
However said and done, its a sad attempt by HUL’s RIN to attract more customers.
@Shamima, Thanks for your input. I totally second what you mentioned. This kind of campaign looks more out of desperation as opposed to a calculated strategy.