It is the advertisement that caused a stir in Pakistan’s marketing world. Olpers, a brand of milk owned by Engro Foods recently launched a television commercial that showed a package of an unnamed rival, though the packaging is distinctly similar to that of the yellow packets of Nestlé’s Nido Fortigrow. A young boy asks his mother if the package is ‘not milk?’ (kya ye doodh nahi hai?), to which his mother exasperatedly says it isn’t, and that ‘ye tou teil milli safaidi hai’ (its a mixture of oil and white powder!). Following this, the grandmother in the commercial then questions in disgust, ‘Yaani ke itne saal se hum dhoka kha rahay thay?’ (So we were being deceived all these years?).
Needless to say, even though Nestlé was not named in the ad, the company did not appreciate the implication that they had been less than forthcoming about the nature of the product. Nestlé’s ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather confirmed that Nestlé Pakistan had taken legal action in the form of a stay order for airing the television commercial against Engro Foods. The Olpers ad is currently still airing on most television channels, but without the part where the boy mentions anything about the yellow packaging.
“It remains to be seen whether this TVC has done damage to the business in terms of reducing sales or market share, since it has only been a couple of weeks since the advertisement was aired,” the agency added.
