Dettol vs Santoor: Comparative advertising which does not disparage a rival’s product is permitted, says Delhi HC

Referring to various judgments on this subject, the high court said, “No prima facie case is, therefore, made out, to injunct the broadcasting or display of the impugned advertisement”.

The high court noted that there is a “distinction between an advertisement which disparages, and one which seeks to compel the viewer to choose the advertised product”.

“Every advertisement seeks to promote a particular product over others, as superior. Else, the very raison d’etre (most important reason) of advertising the product is lost. So long as the advertisement does not slight the rival product, no justifiable cause for pique can be said to exist. The impugned advertisement, in my opinion, does not slight either Dettol, or any other hand wash,” Justice Shankar said.

The court also said that “extolling” the advertised product as better than its peers is “not actionable”.

The court also noted that an “average consumer who has his head and heart in place, would immediately recognise an advertisement” such as the one challenged by Reckitt “to be a pure and simple case of comparative advertising, intended at portraying Santoor as a hand wash with superior moisturizing qualities”.

“An advertisement cannot be injuncted as disparaging merely on the ground that it was intended to be disparaging if the advertisement, seen as a whole by a reasonable and right thinking consumer, does not, in fact, convey an impression that disparages the rival product,” the court observed.

In the advertisement, a young girl can be seen wanting to play with her mother whose hands are dirty as she had been gardening. The mother washes her hands with Santoor hand wash and her daughter is amazed at the softness of her mother’s hands. While the daughter coaxes her mother into continuing to play with her, a voiceover announces: “Haath itne soft ki chhodne ka mann na kare (the hands are so soft that you do not feel like leaving them)”.

After caressing her daughter’s cheeks, the mother removes from the shelf a plastic bottle labelled “ordinary hand wash” bearing the shape of Dettol Hand Wash, and replaces it with Santoor hand wash. A voiceover announces simultaneously, “Saadhaaran handwash ke muqable naye Santoor Handwash mein hain chandan ke gun jo rakhe haathon ko soft (compared to ordinary hand washes, Santoor Hand Wash has the benefits of sandal, which keeps the hands soft)”. A second voiceover announces “Ab har sparsh mein komalta (now, softness in every touch)”.