Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.

William Bernbach

Swati.R.Y Sweta Patil Swetha.C

Comparative Advertisement

Comparative advertising is defined as advertising that

compares alternative brands on objectively measurable

attributes or price, and identifies the alternative brand by name, illustration or other distinctive information.

Its Promotional technique in which an advertiser claims the superiority of its product over competing product(s) by direct or indirect comparison

Direct In direct comparative ads the competing products either are explicitly named or can be precisely identified (by photos, images or trade marks). Example- Nike vs.. Adidas, Complain vs.. Horlicks Indirect Indirect comparative ads do not directly refer to competing brand names. Example- Tide an surf excel, Nirma and HUL

Influence Consumer Behavior Focus on the Superiority of the Advertisers Product over the Competitors Bring out negative aspects of the Competitors product Main aim is comparison of the factors of one traders products with those of another

Compare like with like. Substantiate all comparisons. Exercise care in the use of disclaimers. Consider where the promotion will be read. Consider the context used in advertisement.

Explore your legal options with federal or state statutes. File a complaint with the National Advertising

Division.

Contact the Federal Trade Commission(FTC).

HUL's new Rin campaign claims in an advertisement that Rin provides more brightness in comparison to Tide Naturals, which is the new product that Procter & Gamble has launched a couple of months ago in the mass segment positioning it against Rin as well as Wheel. Procter & Gamble subsequently challenged Tide's claim in the Chennai High Court On March 1, the court asked HUL to modify the advertisement since they were not really able to substantiate the claim. A written judgment is still awaited on this matter.

In late 2008, the makers of Horlicks, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK), and the makers of Complain, Heinz India (Heinz), came out with advertisements that directly compared the brands using the competitor brand's trademarks. Industry observers felt that in their bid to outdo each other, the two companies had ended up denigrating the competitor brand. Usually issues related to disparaging ads by rival companies were resolved by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). But with constant mudslinging at each other, the two companies decided to solve the issue in courts. In September 2008, Heinz moved the Bombay High Court objecting to the Horlicks ad , while in December 2008, GSK approached the Delhi High Court against the Complain advertisement. The decision is still pending