Ankit Nagori, founder, Curefoods, says that he expects the people involved to take accountability and corrective action.
EatFit, a healthy food platform housed under Curefoods, released a campaign with the tagline ‘Kuch Kar Dikhane Ki Bhookh’ in October 2022. The campaign is still live on various platforms.
The brand has also partnered with 'Shark Tank India' Season 2 as its ‘behind-the-scenes’ partner. Sony LIV hosts a series of videos, called ‘Kuch Kar Dikhane Ki Bhookh’, where the participants share their behind-the-scenes experience of the show.
Over a call, Ankit Nagori, founder of Curefoods, tells afaqs! in the last two days, the brand got alerted by some LinkedIn and other social media posts, where people pointed out that the EatFit campaign tagline has been copied by another brand in its recent campaign.
“They are saying that this is a straight copy. Especially, because of the way the word ‘Bhookh’ has been used.”
Nagori is referring to Kellogg’s that rolled out a campaign, titled #KuchKarDikhaneKiBhookh, in January 2022. The campaign has been conceptualised by Ogilvy.
afaqs! reached out to Kellogg's on morning of February 2, but there was no response from the brand until the time of publishing this story. The article will be updated as and when, a response is received.
On how EatFit came up with its campaign, Nagori says, “Last year, when the brand conceptualised this, we thought about how to link good food, which is EatFit, to a larger mission. And, to say that hunger actually stands for more than just hunger. It also implies hunger for satiety, desire, passion and the ambition to do better. The linkage was that if you eat good food, everything is sorted.”
EatFit executed its campaign through two platforms – the T20 Cricket World Cup, where it was a sponsor. Now, it is also using the 'Shark Tank' platform, where it’s the sponsor for all the behind-the-scene footage.
On how his brand plans to address this, Nagori informs, “The first step is to reach out to media, so that we can tell the audience about the idea behind our campaign, what our brand stands for and why we feel it’s an original idea.”
The brand has also reached out to Kellogg’s 'unofficially'. “If we don't receive a reply, we will probably send a formal communication to them. Also, we will be talking to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) basis their response, or whether we get a response or not,” adds Nagori.
He feels that it is very difficult to hold either the brand or its agency accountable, at the moment. However, he expects that the alleged brand and agency should take clear accountability and execute corrective action for the same.
Sharing his perspective on how brands can be more careful to avoid such instances, Nagori mentions that the only way startups will be able to safeguard themselves is by staying rooted in their visions and beliefs.
“We are trying to make a statement and I think if a brand’s claim is authentic, no matter whether you are competing against a larger brand or some international brand or a local brand, it will be taken care of. So, I am not worried that some other brand will be able to win this positioning, which we are trying to establish, because we are very authentic in what we claim.”
Nagori is worried that many startups may face a similar situation in future purely because of the strength of the bigger brand, in terms of money, etc.
However, he also asserts, “I don't think this is something we need to worry about because we have a very authentic approach and that is also my suggestion to anyone else. I want to make sure that the people involved here take accountability and corrective action. It should be an example of how startups should not be sidelined in such cases.”