The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the owner of brand Amul, is planning to challenge a Bombay High Court order against its advertisements.
On Friday, the single-judge bench of Justice S J Kathawalla granted a plea by Hindustan Unilever for an injunction against rival Amul’s advertisements. The commercials allegedly disparaged Kwality frozen desserts, claiming ice-creams contained milk fat while frozen desserts had vanaspati vegetable oil. Although Amul has stopped airing the controversial ads, the GCMMF is, however, not willing to lay down arms yet.
Managing Director R S Sodhi said that it was planning to challenge the high court order in a division bench. They will work on another campaign that brings out the differences between ice-creams and frozen desserts.
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He told Business Standard, “We plan to challenge this order in a division bench. We shall also work on another campaign to highlight the differences between ice-creams and frozen desserts. We do not think our campaign was disparaging in any way for Kwality Walls”.
“It is up to the consumer to decide what they want to consume — ice-creams or frozen desserts. We are only trying to help them make an educated choice,” he added.
Since March 4, the GCMMF started airing the ads which highlighted ingredients that go into making ice-creams and frozen desserts. According to the sources, the tone of the ad seemed to suggest ice-creams were healthier. They also ran a print campaign in all leading dailies.
However, the matter was taken to court on March 21 by HUL. It claimed that it was misleading and disparaged its products.
Executive Director of HUL, Sudhir Sitapati, said, “We are pleased that the Honourable Bombay High Court while injuncting Amul’s advertisement has agreed with HUL’s contention that Amul’s ad is false, misleads consumers and disparages frozen desserts. Kwality Wall’s products are made with milk/milk solids and do not contain vanaspati”.
Meanwhile, Veteran adman Ambi Parameswaran, founder of Brand-Building.com and former CEO of FCB Ulka said, “It is more of an ego-fight between brands. Consumers at the end of the day are concerned more about the value a brand offers and do not usually get affected by court battles over advertisements”.
