Ariel was recently ordered to withdraw one of its television advertisements – which it has done – after the authority found its claims of superiority over other brands was not properly substantiated.
The complainant was Unilever, which manufactures best-sellers Omo and Sunlight as well as Skip and Surf.
In the past two years, the owners of Omo have laid six advertising complaints against Ariel, owned by Procter & Gamble, with a 50% success rate – three complaints were upheld or partially upheld.
In Unilever’s latest complaint, it said that Ariel claimed its Ariel Auto outperformed Omo in fighting “food greasy stains” without backing up the claim.
In the advertisement, television personality Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, journalists and a lab technician put Ariel Auto to the test.
The technician smears solutions with all sorts of mess before putting them into containers with water and two detergents – Ariel and “the best-selling detergent”. After a good shake, the clothes are displayed and Ariel has removed more of the stains than the other detergent.
Unilever said most of the staining agents used are not really “food greasy stains” and that while the advertised product is intended for automatic washing machine use, no washing machine features in the commercial.
The authority agreed.
A Facebook advertisement led to a complaint in December last year.
