Ambimama - India

Many famous Ad wars between soft drink giants, IT companies and consumer goods MNC’s have been witnessed. by us. Some are positive and some in bad taste. Who can forget the “Thumbs up” ads mocking Ajay Jadeja and other circkters to “Monkeys”. That was back in the late 90s.

The Thumbs up ads mocking PEPSI is one of my favorties. And there was another brad which was mocking Mountain Dew ads. One worthy mention would be “All mint no hole” from Nestle Polo. That was a witty tag one.

But the recent one is about the famous battle lost by ITC. The Advertising Standards Council of India has observed that an Ad by ITC was denigrating another product - Cycle Brand and in bad taste.

ITC introduced a five-in-one agarbathi and released Ad in electronic and print media. This Ad created an impression of the three-in-one Cycle brand to look unacceptable and consumers were being misled by the Ad campaign. Mr. Ranga Rao and sons leading agarbathi manufacturers files a case against ITC and won the battle.

I see this a good news for level playing field in the market. One small time Indian entrepreneur can boldly fight the giants like ITC develops a sense of confidence among the small players in the market.

Many years back the soap giant HLL afraid of downtrend sale in Surf sales due to Nirma, tried a dirty trick of filling sub-standard washing powder in Nirma packs and distributed them door-to-door. They were caught red-handed when the promoters came to the house of owner of Nirma. Actually the companies are not to be blamed – but the mean idea of sales managers behind the screen. Do they get promoted?