India’s leading multinational company HUL, which manufactures frozen desserts under its Kwality Walls brand name, has filed a case in the Bombay High Court against Amul’s new TV campaign which educates the consumers to identify and differentiate between ice cream and frozen desserts. It may be noted that Kwality Walls brand name is neither mentioned or hinted at in the advertisement.
Amul has recently released a new TV campaign emphasizing on the need for awareness among the consumers of icecream so they can make an informed decision while purchasing Ice Cream.
The campaign reinforces the USP of the brand i.e. Amul ice creams are made from real milk as compared to frozen desserts that are made from vegetable oils.
This campaign highlights the mandate of checking the word ‘Ice Cream’ on the packs before buying them. Ice cream is mandatorily manufactured using only dairy ingredients as raw material as per the Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2011.
The campaign film concludes with a voiceover emphasizing the difference between Amul Ice Creams which are made from ‘Real Milk’ as opposed to ‘Frozen Desserts’ which are made from ‘Vegetable Oil’, along with a visual imagery of the same.
Thus, Amul’s new campaign is an effort to educate consumers to identify and differentiate between ice-cream and frozen desserts.
It may be noted that Kwality Walls have been masquerading their frozen desserts made from Vegetable Oils as Icecream for so many years.
R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director of GCMMF, said consumers are buying frozen dessert thinking it’s ice cream. “Frozen
desserts are masquerading as ice creams. By using low cost ingredients, they are misleading the consumers who are looking for real product. We are trying to make consumers aware of the difference,” he said, referring to Amul’s anti-frozen dessert campaign. He also added that Amul has always worked in interest of milk producers and consumers alike and is not going to be intimidated by the legal notice of HUL. It is unfortunate that Indian companies who genuinely work in interest of milk producers and consumers alike are being threatened with legal suits for saying the true facts.
It may be noted that the western world has now realised that dairy fat is better for health and butter and fat rich dairy products sales are climbing as compared to analogue products like margarines which are on the declining trend. Milk fat is characteristically different from vegetable fats due to the presence of butyric (C4:0) and caproic (C6:0) acids in it, which are responsible for the rich buttery taste in milk and milk products. On the contrary, products which are void of milk fat often use vegetable oils and flavours to imitate the richness produced by the above-mentioned low chain fatty acids.
He added that “”It is our responsibility to educate customers about ‘analogues’ products so that consumers know what they are purchasing. However being a dairy cooperative, it is a part of our dairy industry mandate to promote the goodness of milk and milk products so that the future of millions of poor milk producers of our country is protected. Like Pure Ghee v/s Dalda campaign, similar ad campaign on butter v/s margarine is also on air and we are also planning to run a similar campaign of real cheese v/s cheese analogues which have recently entered into the market”.
Amul is India’s largest food brand with annual sales turnover exceeding Rs 27,000 crores. It is a cooperative federation owned by 36 lac milk producers of Gujarat with annual milk handling of 6.5 billion litres. The group turnover of GCMMF and its 18 member dairies is Rs 35,000 crores.
Screenshots of the new Amul Icecream advertisement. The ad can be viewed at:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n24pTus__bg&feature=youtu.be
