Complan Vs Horlicks: Comparative Advertising and the Question of Ethics

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"Hard times call for hard, and sometimes blatant, strategies. The recent Horlicks-Complan 'spat' has once again brought comparative advertising to the fore. This time, competing brands seem to have almost come to blows." ¹

- BusinessWorld², January 6-12 Issue, 2009.

"Comparative advertising, when tastefully executed, can be an example of successful advertising. Brands are built on competitive spirit, but there has to be a long term strategy in building brands and the proposition should be unique enough to make it convincing. Else it's akin to salesmen fighting among each other proving their brand to be better, which ends up actually mocking the product."³

- Manish Bhatt, Vice President and Executive Creative Director, Contract Advertising⁴, in 2008.

"The law allows you to say that your goods are better, but stops you from saying that your competitor's goods are inferior. But the moment you say that you are better, by implication you are saying that others are inferior. So, it is a question of saying whether the glass is half full or half empty." ⁵

- Anuradha Salhotra, Partner, Lall Lahiri & Salhotra⁶, in 2008.

The Fight for the Indian Health Drink Market Turns Ugly

In late 2008, a legal battle broke out between GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) and Heinz India (Heinz) over the advertisements of their respective health drinks Horlicks and Complan (Refer to Exhibit I for a snapshot of GSK and Heinz). The advertisements talked about how their respective brand was better than the other and showed the competitor's product in bad light when compared to the company's products. In September 2008, Heinz moved the Bombay High Court7 objecting to advertisements of Horlicks which highlighted the nutritional content and price gap between the two brands, and showed Horlicks as a better and more inexpensive health drink than Complan.

Complan Vs Horlicks: Comparative Advertising and the Question of Ethics - Next Page>>

1] Mahul Brahma, "As Competition Gets Fierce, Advertising Gets Even Fiercer," www.businessworld.in, January 2, 2009.
2] BusinessWorld is one of the leading business magazines in India.
3] Tuhina Anand, "Comparative Advertising: Too Hot to Handle," www.exchange4media.com, December 15, 2008.
4] Contract Advertising is one of the leading advertising and marketing agencies in India.
5] Ratna Bhushan and Paramita Chatterjee, "Horlicks, Complan Slug it Out Over Price Points," www. economictimes.indiatimes.com, December 23, 2008.
6] Lall Lahiri & Salhotra partner is one of the leading intellectual property firms in India.
7] Inaugurated on August 14, 1862, the Bombay High Court is one of the oldest High Courts in the Country. Though the name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995, the Court retained its name as the Bombay High Court.

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