RiN v/s Tide

The recent Rin ad has raised quite a few eyebrows here and there. There have been ad wars in the past between competing brands, most famous being the cola wars in 90s. But an outright attack of this type without an element of humor must be unprecedented in the history ad wars.
What made cola wars popular was the way the used to take a dig at each other, which more often than not, involved an element sarcastic humor.
However this one was more like a punch on Tide's face.It would be quite interesting to see how Tide would respond to this campaign.Seems like they have already filed a legal suit in Mumbai high court. But it wouldn't be surprising to see if Tide comes with a campaign of their in retaliation.

I followed Pepsi-Coca cola ad war with lot of interest which always displayed a lot of creativity in the way pulled each others legs but even in its peak time, i don't remember if they ever came up with such a direct assault on each other. Onida while taking a dig at Nokia, does take the name in the ad but does so in a very smart manner.Audience love when competing brands take a dig at each other, provided that they do it with an element of humor so that it remains in audience's minds for quite some time. Remember the famous Shahrukh-Hrithik fights over Coca-cola and the very funny Sprite-Mountain Dew campaigns.

Whatever it is, i personally felt disgusted seeing the ad as it violated all norms of healthy competition. Not just that, as a person who loves creative ads, i didn't find anything in the ad to say that it was even an 'OK ad' except for the acrimonious attack on a competitor brushing aside all business ethics.Time will only tell if this campaign is just a start of big dirty war between the HUL and P&G.