Daewoo Curbed Over Ads This Time Round

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) on Monday advised Daewoo Motor India Ltd (DMIL) to refrain from issuing advertisements that are derogatory to its rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL).

In a rather tit-for-tat fashion, Hyundai had recently filed a case against Daewoo in the MRTPC, objecting to the latter using the former's name in its ads.

Daewoo has to file a reply in the MRTPC by Friday and the next hearing of the case is on May 22. According to a source, Hyundai is referring to all ads issued by Daewoo, some of which date back to 1998.

 

This is the second time in two months that the rivals have slapped a case on the other. Daewoo had filed a case in the MRTPC against Hyundai in April when the latter's dealers had issued advertisements in vernacular press that read: "Car at home, company on the road". This time on, its Hyundai's turn. Hyundai has objected to many advertisements issued by Daewoo. In one, Daewoo has made comments on deploying an actor (read Shah Rukh Khan) for its promotions (the ad was issued in November 1998).

This particular advertisement issued by Daewoo in a leading national daily on November 5, 1998 read: "We could have paid an actor heavily to make a song and dance about our car. But we have several experts singing our praises for free". And in a more recent print ad, Daewoo has used graphics to show how Hyundai's sales have dipped during January to March 2000.

This ad issued by Daewoo quotes media reports and with the help of a graph to shows how Matiz's sales have increase 55.5 per cent since January 2000, whereas Santro's have dropped by -13.5 per cent over the same period.