Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) objection to the Emami campaign for its Fair & Handsome men’s fairness brand variants on grounds of misleading the consumer and use of language has been dismissed by the Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI), the body that regulates advertisements to promote fair competition among brands.
According to Emami, the Chairman of Independent Review Committee (IRC) of ASCI has personally reviewed all aspects of the complaints from HUL at a meeting attended by teams from Emami and HUL and passed the order in favor of Emami after getting convinced that the HUL’s claims against two variants of Emami Fair & Handsome men’s fairness brand.
an Emami spokesman told “The complaints, filed by HUL against two fairness brand variants of Emami, has been rejected by the Independent Review Committee (IRC) of ASCI. Campaigns for the two fairness variants — Fair & Handsome Instant Fairness Face wash and Fair & Handsome 100 per cent Oil Clear Instant Fairness Face wash were contested by HUL on grounds of use of language and misleading the consumer among others.”
In its argument against HUL’s complaint Emami claimed that both the brand variants had been subjected to rigorous clinical studies to deliver the required results and apparently the IRC has ruled in favour of them too.
HUL’s panic towards Fair & Handsome men’s fairness brand from Emami is evident from the fact that A C Nielsen’s l has declared that Emami’s Fair & Handsome men’s fairness brand has reached No. 3 three spot among the cluttered men’s face wash market in a span of three years. Until recent times Men’s Face wash segment was majorly dominated by HUL’s Fair and Lovely and Ponds.
The Other products in this segment include Garnier, Nivea, L’oreal, Neutrogena, O3+, The Body Shop etc.
