Skincare brand Sebamed names Lux, Pears, Santoor, Rin in digital ads

In a series of posters, and TVCs Sebamed takes the comparative advertising route to show why it's milder than rivals.

Sebamed, a German personal care brand has teamed up with agency The Womb to create an ad campaign that pulls up its competitors by name. The ad sees women lounging around in a bathing area setting in luxurious clothes (often seen in beauty soap ads).

They explain that beauty soaps such as Lux, Pears, and Santoor have the same pH levels as dishwashing soap bar Rin. They place a strip of litmus paper on all the soaps in question to illustrate their point.

The campaign is titled Filmstars kee nahi, science kee suno - a clear reference to Lux soap which has always been known as the 'filmstars soap' in the past.

Commenting on future plans, Shashi Ranjan, India Head for Sebamed, said, “At Sebamed we stand for truth and transparency. We remain strategically committed to invest in attracting best talent, creating engaging brand stories and driving rapid distribution expansion across channels.”

Speaking on the campaign, Konark Gaur, India Head of Marketing for Sebamed said, “Consumers today are re-evaluating their brand choices and are looking for brands that deliver on their promise. Sebamed wants to empower the consumers with the right information so that they can choose the best. We believe that product is always the hero and days of gimmicky advertising are counted.”

Creative partner, The Womb said, “The Personal care industry has always been conditioned to follow standard beauty practices in order to make it appealing to the consumers. However, when we came across Sebamed and what the brand wanted to convey to its consumers, we decided to communicate the product truth through our campaign, without any silver coating. Striking the right balance between the bandwagon fallacy and authenticity, the brand is building a connection with its consumers through demonstration-based advertising with an honest approach.”

The strategic timing of the campaign's release is hard to miss. The ad was released on Friday and the press note issued on Friday evening. ASCI - the governing regulatory body for advertisements in India does not work on weekends. Choosing to display Rin soap in this ad is also intentional - since Rin pulled up a competitor by name in a yesteryear ad campaign.

The Rin ad from 2010 shows two mothers waiting at a bus stop for their children, who are returning from school. They spot each other's shopping baskets - one woman's basket sports a packet of Rin, while the other has purchased Tide Naturals. The Tide lady looks proudly at her purchase and brags about Tide's 'khushboo aur safedi bhi' offering (fragrance combined with whiteness). The Rin lady simply smiles.

When the school bus rounds the corner and drops off the two children, the Tide lady's boy is wearing a visibly dull shirt, while behind him emerges a boy clad in a spotless white shirt, who runs past the shocked Tide lady, over to his 'Rin' mother. To make things cheekier, the boy asks his mother, 'Aunty chaunk kyun gayi?' (Why is aunty so shocked?), where the word 'chaunk' could easily be a reference to Tide's punch line, 'Chaunk gaye?'

Credits:

Agency – The Womb

Partners – Kawal Shoor, Navin Talreja

Production House – Good Morning Films

Producer – Afshan Shaikh