The Hindu Business Line : Dettol, Ayush row whips up `antiseptic' lather

IT is now the turn of soaps Dettol, from the Reckitt Benckiser stable and Ayush from Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) to lather up a debate on the fine line between `an antiseptic soap', `an anti-bacterial soap' and `an ayurvedic medicinal preparation with antiseptic properties' — even as they battle it out in the Delhi High Court, on whether HLL's commercial for its Ayush soap showed Reckitt's Dettol soap in a `disparaging' manner.

The soap saga commenced in February this year, when Reckitt Benckiser filed a petition seeking a permanent and mandatory injunction against HLL's Ayush commercials. Subsequently, an ex-parte order had been granted later in February, following which HLL had to take its commercials off air, legal sources told Business Line.

In April this year, the Court vacated this interim injunction, following an appeal from HLL. The hearing for the main petition is scheduled to come up in July.

Meanwhile, in another recent development, Reckitt Benckiser, in a statement late on Thursday, said that it had filed an appeal before the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, with regard to the preliminary observations made by the Court, while vacating the interim injunction against HLL's Ayush commercials.

The Court's order in April had not only vacated the interim injunction that it had originally granted Reckitt Benckiser against HLL's Ayush commercials, it also contained observations on Dettol being an anti-bacterial toilet soap, as opposed to an antiseptic soap.

The commercial in focus here is HLL's advertisement for its Ayush soap, where a doctor calls for hot water while attending to a medical emergency on a train. She is handed a cake of soap, which she rejects stating that an antiseptic soap was required.

Reckitt Benckiser was of the opinion that the soap was identifiable as Dettol. The protagonist in the commercial further states that at times like this "you do not need just an antiseptic. You need a protector" — and HLL's Ayush soap comes into focus.

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