We Are Losing Heavily Due To Pepsodent Ad: Colgate

Colgate submitted before the Supreme Court yesterday that it has lost tremendously in the toothpaste market after Hindustan Lever started its New Pepsodent campaign.

Senior counsel Soli Sorabjee was replying to the HLL appeal against the order of the MRTPC Commission last month asking it to stop the 102 per cent ad campaign. He said that the sales of Colgate toothpaste brands have shown a steep fall in recent months.

The division bench consisting of Justice Suhas C Sen and Justice M Jagannadha Rao reserved its judgement after hearing both sides for two days.

Sorabjee said that the New Pepsodent campaign was inherently deceptive as it alleged that Colgate was an inferior product.

 

The pictures and captions going with the ads were injurious to its (Colgates) reputation. The commission had rightly passed an injunction against HLL, he emphasised.

Sorabjee said that despite the commissions injunction, HLL was continuing with the Rs 8 crore campaign in a modified form, which was still harmful to Colgate. Sales are nose-diving and Colgate will soon be wiped out, he added.

Rejecting the objection of HLL against the expert committee set up by the commission to verify the claim, Sorabjee said that the suggestion was in fact made by HLL.

It was recorded by the commission in its order. HLL spokesmen also claimed that the expert committee suggestion was theirs and it was a good idea. It was later that they changed the stand.

The expert committee will give its conclusions in four months and the injunction was only for this limited period. Even this limited injunction was being bypassed in different ways by HLL, Sorabjee said.

HLL counsel Harish Salve reiterated his argument made last week that it had not agreed to an expert panel.

He insisted that it was only doing aggressive advertising based on laboratory findings, without disparaging any rival products.

Counsel Iqbal Chagla, representing a consumer, submitted that the enquiry by the commission must continue in public interest. He said that HLL ads on the TV was even more disparaging of Colgate than those in the print media.

According to him, the ingredients of the old and New Pepsodent showed that they were identical. People should not be led to choose the toothpaste under erroneous impression, counsel said.