Rin Vs Tide naturals – Hindustan Lever and P&G clash over deterget soap advertisements

Advertisements and branding in India haven’t tried to poke or defame other brands much (except sometime, like the recent Reliance Mobile Ad which tried to defame Airtel offers). But, the trend is changing. Companies have started defaming other leading brands in their advertisements. And, so are the side effects.

One such recent incident caused much more ripples than expected. It was between the country’s leading FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods – soaps, toothpaste, detergents, brushes, shampoos, etc., ) firm Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Procter & Gamble (P&G).

HLL launched “Rin is better than Tide” campaign and the TV commercials on the same line were aired all over the country. The idea was to promote “Rin” (the HUL detergent brand) over the competitor “Tide” (the P&G detergent brand). Have a look at the below TV commercial, you will know…

Soon after this advertisement, as expected, P&G proceeded to Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the industry watchdog that regulates all advertising in the country, and got a ban on this Ad. It seems, P&G has also filed a lawsuit against HUL’s disparaging advertisement.

As a ripple effect, HUL filed a case against P&G, claiming P&G’s “Tide Naturals” detergent branding is misleading as it says it has natural ingredients like Sandal and Lemon.

And as expected, P&G had to take the back fire as it had to admit that its low-priced detergent brand Tide Naturals contains no “natural” ingredients.

So, the Madras High Court issued an order to P&G to modify its advertising for Tide Naturals to clarify prominently to consumers that the detergent does not contain lemon and chandan.

The Rin advertisement is clearly the most disparaging in the history of HUL (and in the country as well), which is desperate to check a decline in its market share to rivals and smaller regional players.

One interesting thing to note here is, both these brands are from multi national companies ( Unilever and P&G) and are having majority market share in the Indian FMCG market. I would have been happy if it were some Indian FMCG company trying some defaming advertisements on these brands. But, I am not against globalisation. Just passionate our home grown brands and wanting them to be more competent. What say ?