Accepting toothpaste manufacturer Colgate Palmolive's plea, the Delhi High court has directed its rival Pepsodent Germicheck to withdraw its print advertisement, saying the same appears to be "prima facie disparaging" of the Colgate brand.
The court, however, said Pepsodent's TV advertisement is not disparaging but the voice over on it is "misleading and inaccurate" and asked Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to modify Pepsodent's TV commercial.
"We restrain the respondent (HUL) and or its agents from publishing the impugned print advertisement or any other similar advertisement which disparages Colgate ST (Colgate Strong Teeth) or any other product of the appellants (Colgate)," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru said.
"To sum up, in our view, the impugned TVC cannot be stated to be per se disparaging Colgate ST. However, the voice-over at the end of the impugned TVC which states ...Is misleading and inaccurate. Thus, this statement in the voiceover is directed to be deleted from the impugned TVC or, at the option of the respondent, may be suitably modified to refer only to Colgate ST (Colgate Strong Teeth).....," the bench also said.
Colgate had, in its plea, alleged the TV advertisement had given inaccurate information regarding the comparative effects of the two toothpastes, while the print advertisement was not only inaccurate but also amounted to disparagement of its brand.
The court in its order accepted the argument that the print advertisement was disparaging, noting that the ad "not only conveys an impression that use of Colgate would not be as effective as Pepsodent but also conveys an impression that use of Colgate ST instead of Pepsodent GSP would result in causing harm and discomfort to its consumers.
