Dabur moves court over Emami’s ad

MUMBAI: It’s not all sugar and spice between

Dabur India

and Emami, who are rivals in the Rs 500-crore

chyawanprash

category.Dabur has dragged

Emami

to court over the latter’s

Zandu Chyavanprashad

ad — which allegedly disparaged the chyawanprash category.


The Delhi high court has asked Emami to pull out the advertisement but Emami has gone into appeal, which could make this a protracted battle.

It all started when Emami launched Zandu Chyavanprashad without sugar late last year. Dabur, too, manufactures chyawanprash without sugar under

Dabur Chyawanprakash

. In the said ad, Emami claims that its Chyavanprashad has all the advantages of chyawanprash. The print ad of the sugar free product gave a warning in red that ‘chyawanprash has 50 per cent sugar’.

Dabur’s contention is that Emami was trying to compare its sugar free product with Dabur’s product — which contains sugar. Although the ad did not specifically mention Dabur’s name, Emami too has chyawanprash with sugar.

Dabur, being the leader with a share of 58 per cent, would get impacted the most if the entire category of chyawanprash gets disparaged. A Dabur India spokesperson said, “The Delhi HC has granted interim injunction against Emami, restraining them from airing this impugned campaign that disparages Chyawanprash as a category. The high court termed this campaign as misleading, unfair, deceptive and created with the dishonest intention of disparaging chyawanprash as a category.”

The court has also directed Emami to remove the said ad from the digital platform YouTube.

An Emami spokesperson said the company has gone into appeal but refused to comment as the matter is sub judice.

Earlier, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), an industry watchdog, had ruled that the Emami ad was misleading. The fast track complaints panel of ASCI concluded that the claim “Chyawanprash ke saare gun” is not substantiated and is misleading by exaggeration. Emami, which had initially mentioned in their advertisement that their product contains all the qualities of chyawanprash, later deleted the same after the ASCI order.

With growing health consciousness, the market for chyawanprash has witnessed a huge activity on the advertising and marketing front — with the entry of new players like Patanjali. Dabur is followed by Baidyanath with a share of 14 per cent, Patanjali at 12 per cent, and Emami plus Zandu at 7 per cent.