Delhi HC rejects Dettol's plea to restrain Santoor Hand Wash ad from airing

The Delhi High Court has rejected Dettol’s plea to restrain Wipro Enterprises from airing an ad which allegedly disparaged the former while promoting its own brand - Santoor Hand Wash.

Take a look at the Santoor ad released two weeks ago: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IuwHLH7bO4

Justice C Hari Shankar rejected the interim relief application stating that the Santoor ad doesn’t disparage Dettol in any way, reported Bar and Bench.

“It would be reading too much into the impugned advertisement, in my opinion, to extract, from it, anything derogatory or deprecating regarding Dettol… Even if all these features of the advertisement are collectively seen, they do not make out, in any manner of speaking, a message which either denigrates or disparages Dettol,” the Court said.

Shankar further said that there is no direct reference, whatsoever, to any property or characteristic of Dettol and the entire recital is only with respect to Santoor.  

Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Dettol had filed a suit against Santoor. 

In the ad, a young girl asks her mother to play with her while the latter is gardening. At her request, the mother washes her hands with Santoor handwash and starts playing with her daughter. Amazed by her mother’s soft hand, she wants to continue playing with her.  

Towards the end of the ad, a voiceover says, “haath itne soft ki chhodne ka mann na kare” (the hands are so soft that you do not feel like leaving them).

Later on, the mother is shown removing a plastic bottle from the shelf labelled ‘ordinary hand wash’. Basis this, Dettol had alleged that the bottle which is being removed in the ad is in the shape of Dettol Hand Wash.

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