P&G moves HC against HUL; may launch tit-for-tat ad

Procter & Gamble India has certainly not going to sit back over rival FMCG maker Hindustan Unilever Ltd's TV spots openly saying that P&G's new mid-tier detergent Tide Naturals is inferior to HUL's lower-price brand Rin.

The commercial, launched on 26 February, claims that Tide delivers better whiteness than Tide Naturals at an affordable price. (See: Rin versus Tide: The limits to comparative advertising )

Apart from moving the Madras high court on Wednesday against the ''disparaging'' ad, P&G reportedly plans to take on HUL's upmarket detergent brand Surf in a tit-for-tat ad, which will compare Surf with P&G's Ariel.

In a related hearing on 1 March, HUL got an ad interim injunction from the high court preventing P&G from airing its Tide Naturals commercial in the current format.

The court directed P&G to make modifications to the commercial. This involved the inclusion of the sentence "It does not contain lemon and chandan" prominently in the ad whenever the two were found to be projected.

HUL had moved the court on 25 February saying the use of the word 'natural' by P&G was incorrect, since there were no natural ingredients - lemon and chandan - in the detergent powder. Only fragrances of the two were added to the product.