Watchdog Turns Down Hta Plea Against Coke Campaign

The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAA of I) has dismissed Hindustan Thompson Associate's (HTA) plaint that `Coca Cola ala re' is a plagiarism of a Pepsi advertisement.

"The executive committee confirmed their earlier view that the jingle used in the commercial under dispute, appeared to be public property and that the two commercials were dissimilar," the AAA of I said.

Sources in HTA said they have not yet received any intimation from the AAA of I on their complaint. Pepsi was unavailable for comments.

Earlier in the month, HTA, which has the Pepsi account, had moved the AAA of I and the Advertising Standards Council of India against Coke and its advertising agency Chaitra Leo Burnett saying that the Coke commercial `Coca Cola ala ala re' was lifted from Pepsi's commercial featuring cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. It had also given details of the Pepsi ad film and when it was shot.

 

"The issue is not whether anybody dismisses our case or not.

The point that we wanted to make is that plagiarism of an idea is not conducive to creativity even if the jingle is a public property and both commercials can co-exist," HTA sources said.

"It is clear that this jingle (ala ala re) was conceived by us and produced well before Chaitra Leo Burnett."

It is undeniable then that Coca Cola and CLB have plagiarised our creative output and caused harm to our clients M/s Pepsi," HTA said.

HTA said that Coke released the `Coca Cola ala ala re' ad during the Princess Diana Memorial Cricket Match played in England, well before Pepsi could.

According to Prahlad Kakkar, the film maker who had shot the Pepsi campaign, the `Sachin ala re' Pepsi ad was shot in May and was slated for release during the upcoming cricket tournament at Sharjah.

Earlier, Kakkar had told Business Standard, "But now everybody in the ad world would be paranoid about security which would tell on creativity."