for Deliberate, unscrupulous, continuing duping of the Public

Hindustan Unilever is guilty of duping the Indian Public for the last 20 years in some of their products.  Their annual sales is about 18000 Crores - 50 Crores per day. The advertisement budget is about 5 Crores per day. Many of their products are advertised daily in TV Channels either with outrageous, deliberately false, misleading, unproven or unscientific claims. I wish that they are fined 10 Crores per day in cases where they try to dupe the Public.

Lakme, Ponds, Brookebond, Lipton, are all associate / subsidary companies

Readers who like this write up, may please send their suggestion to Pranab Mukerjee, the Finance Minister.  Who knows, one may get a share of the fine and a Padma Shri for Public Service.

Does the Law provide for action ?

Yes. The Supreme Court of India had ruled that " the object is to bring honesty and truth in the relationship between the manufacturer and the consumer " and held that " if the general impression conveyed is false, the  most punctilious and scrupulous accuracy in immaterial minutiae will not render the representations true."

Simplified, if honesty and truth are violated and the general impression conveyed is false / lie, a company is duping / misleading / cheating the Public and deserves punishment due for a cheat.

That is the spirit of the law. It is time it is enforced

Why do I single out Lever ?

a] Hindustan Unilever with over 18000 Crores sales, over 3000 Crores in personal care products and with admitted / confessed  guilt / caught red handed, is fit enough candidate to start the repair work.

There are too many lesser known scoundrels in the market like Vultures looting the Public unfairly. An example needs to be set.

b] I prove below with their own advertised messages and practices that they are Scoundrels. I watch TV for more than 2 hours daily and so their constant messages annoy me.

If there be any provision under National Human Rights Commission for a Senior Citizen of 66 like me to catch them fast by Law, please do let me know. Now, I only vent out my feeling on this personal site of mine because civil cases take 12 years and at 78, I may have many medical appointments

 

Any precedent ? Yes

Mr. Raju, Founder of Satyam, is in jail. Justification ? His own confessional statement of having siphonned off / misused the company's funds. CBI is yet to file a case against him, even after nearly a year.

So, lever's confession, when combined with other misdeeds of the past, provide solid and sufficient grounds for speedy legal deterrent against them.

The Cheap Joke - Kettle Calling the Pot Black

Lever filed a complaint against Ariel / Proctor & Gamble, accusing it of making 'unsubstantiated Claim'.

Making an 'unsubstantiated Claim' is legally wrong is accepted by Hindustan Unilever.

So, if they are caught on the same ground for other products, it exposes them to be a cheap and deliberate dupers of Public / commercial cheat, deserving immediate and swift punishment

 

Lever's background: Known Offender - 1997

MRTPC: " The commission held that Colgate - Palmolive had established a prima facie case against the ad campaign. It held that if the claim of "102"% anti- bacterial superiority is ultimately not found to be true," consumers by and large can be said to have been duped by such advertisement campaign. [ Pepsodent tooth paste - for more details, Unfair practices ]

This injury caused to the public in general can hardly be compensated in terms of money, as the feeling of being duped cannot be evaluated in monetary terms. This observation is against Hindustan Lever.

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 1

Times of India, Ahmedabad dated 13th February, 2010: [ page 17 ]

Heading:  HUL Guilty of making misleading ad claims

'.. Hindustan Unilever has been held guilty by a high powered body under the health ministry of making false and misleading claims on its malted beverage 'Kissan Amaze'...

Their claim that the Kissan Amaze would have 'favourable action on Brain Power' is without any Medical Research or Proof.

Do not such unsubstantiated / unproven claim affect the future generation ?

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 2

Sunsilk Conditioner

Hindustan Lever's Sunsilk conditioner's advertisement came on Star one TV channel on 7th April and Sony TV channel, on 6-4-2009. You may have seen / can watch them in the coming days

Lever's Message: Shampoo cannot reduce hair fall and will make the hair rough

Hindustan Lever and associates / subsidiaries like Ponds, Lakme, sell Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Ayush, Dove and other shampoos. They sell the Shampoos, with superlative virtues,  despite their own confessed weakness of a shampoo.

What they say for Sunsilk conditioner contradicts / dilutes most of what all they said about the other Shampoos in their stable in TV advertisements in the past.

If what they say for the conditioner is True, what all they said about their various shampoos, were false or less than true and the public was duped for years.

If what they now say for conditioner is false, it is deliberate misguidance. Both cannot be true. That means that they have indulged in plain and open, shameless cheating, for years.

 

Misdeed / We confess that we are an unreliable company! So what ?  3

'Shampoos and boy friends are a bit similar in approach. They say one thing and do another. Can't fully bank upon !'. - Sunsilk Advertisement in Indian TV.

They brazenly said that. They sell Shampoos. If Raju can be arrested, why not Hindustan Lever ?

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 4

Fair & Lovely - nothing fair or lovely except the name

They did not even try to attempt the 'fairness impact'  in the sham Market Survey that they did. For more, refer to  fair n lovely. A product sold to the Public for over 30 years now is riddled with too many contradictions as that page details.

 

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 5

Supreme Court wordings quoted above ....if the general impression conveyed is false...

Lux Toilet Soap is sold as a quality soap, preferred by Hindi Film Actress. Priyanka Chopra, a film actress and an earlier Beauty Queen is the model

Hindustan Unilever, largest sellers of Toilet Soaps in India  is an unethical, Cheap, Trust Breakers

Brand	TFM % in 1985	TFM % in 1993	% drop in TFM
Lowering their own Quality Standards !
Lifebuoy [Hindustan Unilever]	58	45	22.4
Lux              same maker	80	50	37.5
Hamam       same maker	78	60	21.0

 

TFM has been reduced by Hindustan Lever, lowering the quality of the Soaps

Lowering TFM means lowering the Quality. Refer to Mr. Adi Godrej, reason for improved sales of Godrej No 1 or Godrej website [ News release dated 16-9-1999 ]

Business World, July 13, 1993

"Even today, Soaps exported to Russia must have at least 80% Total Fatty matter"...

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 6

Supreme Court wordings quoted above ....if the general impression conveyed is false...

Business World     19-5-93    to     1-6-93:        page 57       'Cleaning up the Competition'

"DOVE  is  being  marketed  as an Alkaline Substance Free Soap  with  one fourth   Moisturiser for  highly sensitive skin.  Levers  even   arranged  a  live  pH test  to  demonstrate its Non alkaline nature. The  test showed  that  Soaps  like Camey, Godrej's Evita, Johnson & Johnson's and even Lever's own  Pears had high  alkaline  content". 

With such a background, caught with pants down in front of the Press, they still continue to advertise for a product with 'pH paper' even in 2008.

They try to convey with the pH paper that they are much concerned about our skin. Are they ? pH paper was not invented yesterday. There were ways to test pH even in 1961 when I did my B.Sc Chemistry course. They have cheated the Public and trying to cover that with 'immaterial minutiae'

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 7

Therapy means treatment / cure of a disease. In common parlance, it connotes a system of Therapy like Allopathy, Homeopathy, Unani, Ayurveda, Siddhi and others. The term is not used for an individual product / treatment by an individual.

Dove Therapy conveys / may convey to the Public, it is a proven, medical cure / treatment.

If Lever says that it is a medically proven dandruff cure, it is but proper and ethical that they withdraw all other shampoos like clinic plus, sunsilk and such others

Or, they have to admit that 'therapy' term was deliberately misused  / loosely used [giving scope for the public to draw wrong interpretations] and they are continuing the sales of other shampoos and that they are nearly as good as Dove to cater to the public at different price points,

they attempt to dupe the market if one ignores the 'immaterial minutiae'

An urgent deterrent is necessary in public interest.

Parachute / Marico ridiculed some therapies and misused the term to promote their product with 'unsubstantiated claims' - refer parachute

Himalaya got a Clinical Trial conducted by an Hospital unqualified to do that !

 

Misdeed / unsubstantiated claim / Duping the Public - 8

Lever's water purifier was promoted with a challenge of One Crore. It was not a proven product without equal as claimed. Another company challenged the claim. Now the products of both the companies have to be verified / tested on various parameters by an independant Agency in America

What does it mean ?

You can carry on your bluffs till someone stops and if no one wants to spend time in courts, continue with your bluff and dupe the Public.

 

Double Standards

Monday, 15th March, 2010: Business Standard    Reporting on the basis of briefing / news gathered

" P&G, by naming its product as 'Naturals' is inducing false belief in the consumers that the detergent powder is softer on the skin and ...."  I agree with HUL's argument.

The above stand of HUL before the Madras High Court confirms their dubious double standards and confirms the validity of above points,  7, 6, and 5

 

What do you do, if someone like Osama Bin Laden files a legal complaint against Terrorism ?

 

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Main / original content:  2001: Last minor modifications: June 8, 2010:     Personal website of R. Ranganathan M.Sc., [ MBA - IIMA]