When markets get extremely competitive, brands tend to ambush their competition to establish their superiority. An interesting rivalry had been sparked between HUL’s Rin and P&G’s Tide detergents.
In Feb of 2010, HUL took to the court to question Tide Natural’s claim of containing ingredients like lemon and sandalwood. It urged the court to ask P&G to drop the word ‘Naturals’ from Tide’s name as it was misleading and a mere disclaimer that it did not contain those ingredients was not sufficient. The same week HUL also came out with a very bold ad commercial that took a direct jab at Tide’s ‘Chaunk Gaye?’(Shocked?) tagline. The Ad shows two women waiting at the bus stop for their children with their shopping bags in hand. One is a Rin user and the other a Tide Naturals user. When their children arrive, the Tide user is shocked at how much brighter the other boy’s uniform looks as compared to the one worn by her son. That boy then goes on to ask his mother, “Aunty Chaunk Kyun Gayi?”(Why is aunty shocked?). The ad then shows both products side by side and says outright that Rin is far superior.
P&G was naturally not happy about this took to the court about this ad and the Kolkata High Court soon asked HUL to take down the ad and asked HUL not use such ads in the future. Marketing has changed a lot in the last decade and ads have gotten a lot more competitive in India since then with several brands participating in competitive banter among each other.
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