Hindustan Unilever counters Amul with new advertisement to defend frozen desserts
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, maker of the Kwality Wall’s brand of frozen desserts, has come out with a new ad film stressing the use of milk in its products, taking the ‘ad war’ to the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation.
The ad is seen as a response to a campaign by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul ice-cream brand, that claimed frozen desserts contain hydrogenated vegetable oil, often called vanaspati.
HUL has already dragged GCMMF to the Bombay High Court for the campaign that it says is “disparaging” towards frozen desserts.
According to regulations of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, ice-creams made with any kind of vegetable fat other than milk fat are termed frozen desserts.
HUL’s 15-second ad, posted on YouTube through the Kwality Wall’s official channel on 17 April, uses the tagline “Kwality Wall’s, Made with Milk”, and shows an animated milk bottle asking animated Kwality Wall’s products: “Who drank the milk?” The tagline emphasises that Kwality Wall’s frozen desserts are made with milk, just like icecreams. The caption says: “It’s time we answer this question and put rumours to rest.”
In Amul’s ad, featuring a young girl visiting the dentist, a voice-over urges viewers to give their children “pure” milk ice-creams like Amul’s rather than frozen desserts made with vanaspati tel or vegetable oil.
The ad was devised by HUL’s creative agency DDB Mudra, although the firm declined to comment.
In an emailed response to Mint’s queries, an HUL spokesperson said: “This is a separate campaign to inform consumers that Kwality Wall’s range is ‘Made with Milk’.”
HUL didn’t specify which channels will be used to play the ad and how much they will invest in the campaign. Although the Kwality Wall’s YouTube channel has only 4,876 subscribers, HUL has plenty of clout to get its message across to consumers. In the week between April 8 and 14, for instance, HUL was the top television advertiser, according to data collected by the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India.
Brand and consumer analysts say HUL will be compelled to hit back with such ads as sales of ice-creams and frozen desserts rise with onset of summer.
“Until Amul did this (icecream versus frozen desserts) ad, the consumer gave a damn,” independent brand expert Harish Bijoor said.
“The difference between icecream and frozen dessert was a footnote. Now, the consumer is curious. Now that HUL has replied, there will be two camps. One which says frozen desserts are fine and another that supports ice-creams.”
The real challenge for both companies is convincing the Indian consumer, Bijoor said.
The Amul-HUL spat is only the latest in a long list of large consumer brands fighting one another in the courtroom while taking digs at each other in their respective ad campaigns. In the court hearings, both sides cited instances including the Ujala fabric whitener campaign that took digs at Robin Blue, and Colgate India’s ad that attacked Dabur’s Lal Dant Manjan.