After Bombay High Court, Delhi Court stops Patanjali soap advertisement

A day after restraining Patanjali Ayurved from airing a soap commercial for mocking rival brands, the Delhi High Court has told the Baba Ramdev company to stop broadcasting its latest television advertisement for chyawanprash because it allegedly disparaged rival Dabur Chyawanprash.

Hearing an appeal filed by Dabur, a Delhi High Court bench on Wednesday issued an ad interim injunction restraining the telecast and circulation of the said advertisement of Patanjali across all media, including social media.

The commercial was uploaded on digital media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

It shows an actress posing as a celebrity preparing to shoot an ad for a chyawanprash in red-coloured pack, strikingly similar to Dabur’s chyawanprash, and refers to Dabur’s advertising tagline of helping ‘build immunity’. It goes on to refer to the product as ‘meethi chutney’ (sweet paste).

Sudhir Makkar, senior advocate representing Dabur, told the court the advertisement was a “brazen attempt to disparage and downgrade Dabur Chyawanprash and deliberately depicted it in poor light”.

Responding to the interim order, Patanjali Ayurved spokesperson SK Tijarawala said the company would file its reply to the court. He refused to comment further “since the matter is sub-judice”.

Dabur is the market leader in the Rs 400-crore chyawanprash category, with 57% share.

Earlier this week, both the Delhi and Bombay high courts had directed Patanjali to stop airing its latest television commercial for soaps, which allegedly disparaged Reckitt Benckiser’s Dettol and Hindustan Unilever’s Pears and Lifebuoy brands.

The Patanjali spokesperson defended its commercials. “We believe in promoting natural, ayurvedic products. Through our advertising, we tell consumers about the harmful effect of using chemical products,” Tijarawala said.

Patanjali has been giving stiff competition to established players across consumer goods categories including soap, toothpaste and processed foods, in the ayurvedic, natural space, and started taking away share from the rival brands in some categories such as toothpaste.