Rin vs Tide

Recently Unilever launched a new TVC for one its detergent brands called Rin. This TVC is now commonly being addressed as the Rin VS Tide ad(because of obvious reasons). Now being part of this crazy industry called advertising, the first question that people ask me is... "Is it right? Can they actually do that". well this question based on moral and ethical ground still doesn't bother me as much as to WHY would they do that.

Well, there is something that we all are forgetting over here, that this kind of a brand war is not new. Don't we still adore the great Pepsi - Coke ad war. Or the Apple - Windows ad stints.

Moreover we all know that Unilever is actually one of the oldest, biggest and smartest entity, where some of the most appreciated and intellectual marketeers breed.

Questions: Then why would such a company do what it did. Spending a decent amount on the creative, and then a mammoth chunk on the media buying. Taking such a high risk, as if "all in" and that too on a blind fold.

Reasoning: If we compare the Brand DNA of both Tide and Rin, Tide has always overshadowed Rin with its international look and feel, which further suggests that Tide being and international brand (as compared to Rin) offers better results on usage (whiteness/ fragrance / cleanliness/ etc). Now this is merely a perception (as the end consumer himself lacks the measurement tools to scale the above mentioned results) strongly embedded in the consumers mind. And one of the best proven methods to do break such a strong perception (not a belief) is to take it down head on.And this is where Rin choose to attack via shock.

Results: Everyone's talking about it. People are discussing it in their peers, thinkers are blogging about it, marketeers are debating on different forums about it. Bottom line... people are actually comparing Rin and Tide on the same grounds, where its no longer like comparing apples with oranges.