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The art of Comparative Advertising

S. Kumar

Competition they say, makes one perform better. But is comparison always healthy? Not necessarily especially in the ad world. Let's find out more about the healthy competition, or the lack of it, prevailing in the Indian advertising industry today.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that it all started with the Coke-Pepsi war. It's not that competition didn't exist before. It certainly did. But the open and direct hitting by these two giant companies made what we can call "comparative advertising" more blatant and official. It started in the 90's when Coca-Cola became the official soft drink of the cricket World Cup. In retaliation, Pepsi soon came out with a campaign - 'nothing official about it'. Coca Cola might not have got into the tussle directly but it did hit back with its other brands Thumbs Up and Sprite. Well, the tagline 'thanda matlab Coca Cola' might have stuck in our minds, but our hearts continuously ask for more (remember Pepsi's tagline 'Yeh dil mange more'?), thanks to comparative advertising!

Yes it's true. When you hit upon a brand or its tagline it invariably makes a consumer pay more attention to it and increases the impact of the advertisement. So when Pepsi said there's "nothing official about it", consumers thought, who's the official one then? Aah…, Coca Cola! So, Pepsi did create a market for itself, but it indirectly also helped Coca Cola by strengthening the latter's brand value. And while the war continued, consumers made merry!

The Coke-Pepsi war however, eventually subsided and today other popular brands have taken the stage. Topping the list is the

constant tussle between the washing detergent brands. Remember the fight bet-ween Surf and Ariel? And the one between Pepsodent and Colgate? Well, the wars may no longer exist but the zeal to outdo each other still prevails, glimpses of which can be seen in their ad campaigns. These old established brands may be through with their share of comparative advertising, but there are others who have recently joined the race.

Take for example the Horlicks and Complan controversy where each brand is trying to prove itself better than the other with their spots. The advertisement shows two ladies with their sons shopping in a supermarket with one of them buying Complan and the other buying Horlicks. In the conversation between the two ladies, the one taking Complan picks up the Horlicks bottle from the other's trolley and says "If you notice the ingredients in Horlicks, you will notice that they are very cheap items and goes on to say that Complan is a complete health drink with the best ingredients." Well, that is what we call a direct hit! However, Horlicks also came up with a spot on the same lines.

If that wasn't enough, the fun campaign by Cadbury "Meetha hai khana aaj pehli tareekh hai" has recently received a direct hit by the Munch campaign saying you can eat the chocolate at any date, obviously hinting at the pricing factor. If you ask anybody, the Munch ad actually reminds one more of the Cadbury advertisement and some believe it is indeed helping Cadbury by constantly hitting upon it.

We take it for granted that advertising is warfare. A brand has to hit upon its rival in order to establish its supremacy. Yet, there are experts who say that such impudence or aggression may not always yield the desired results. In India, where washing one's dirty linen in public is not exactly considered posh, the constant squabbling between two brands can often put off a consumer rather than creating a healthy desirability for the product. Unwarranted comparative advertising has often dragged many companies into court rooms resulting in the spending of huge amounts of money, manpower and energy.

So ad gurus, stick to highlighting your company's virtues and don't highlight your rival's faults. Competition, if healthy, is acceptable and likeable, but frivolous bickering?

No thank you!

The author is a well-known industry watcher