ASCI dismisses advertisement plagiarism complaint by Amul against Lux Industries

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) dismissed a complaint filed by Amul Macho claiming plagiarism of its advertisement campaign by inner wear brand Lux Cozi. .Earlier this month, JG Hosiery, which owns Amul Macho brand lodged a complaint with the ASCI alleging that Lux Cozi's advertisement (featuring Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan) is a ‘complete copy’ of the former's 'TOING' advertisement released in 2007.Amul contended that its advertisement was still available on Google as one of the most liked advertisements and the premise of the new Lux advertisement was identical with a similar storyline. Amul sought immediate action against Lux on the grounds that the advertisement unfairly took advantage of the brand equity, reputation and goodwill generated by Amul Macho brand..In response to the complaint, Lux Industries, owner of the brand Lux Cozi, contended that the complaint seemed to have been initiated with an intention to malign Lux's reputation in the eyes of public and waste the time of the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), adjudicatory body of the ASCI. Lux also pointed out a list of dissimilarities to show how the concept, theme and expression of both advertisements were in complete contrast to each other and hence, there can be no scope of similarity whatsoever..Lux informed the CCC that Amul's advertisement had been a subject of controversy soon after it was released in 2007 on account of its "objectionable and indecent content".Because of this, the Ministry of Information & Broadcast had banned the telecasting of that advertisement across all mediums.Hence, there did not arise a question of taking any advantage of any brand equity or goodwill. "No reputation and/or goodwill can be said to have accrued in favor of the Lux's advertisement on account of it having been banned by the Central Government of India," they said..Observing that both advertisements barely had any similarities between them, the CCC held that Lux's advertisement was not in contravention of the ASCI code and rejected Amul's complaint. .Lux was represented by team from Naik Naik & Co. including Deputy Managing Partner Madhu Gadodia, Associate Partner Lavin Hirani, Associate Partner Deepak Deshmukh and Senior Associate Sujoy Mukherji.