The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has cleared Kellogg India after EatFit had claimed that the former had copied its brand campaign.
Last month, EatFit released a statement through which it accused a 'large global brand' of plagiarising its brand campaign titled 'kuch kar dikhane ki bhook' (the hunger to achieve something). EatFit had also written to ASCI about this matter.
Kellogg India had denied those allegations and stated that 'kuch kar dikhane ki bhookh' cannot be called as proprietary material unless the same is protected under the Indian legal context.
Now, Kellogg India has been cleared by ASCI. The council has claimed that the term 'bhookh' can be used by various food-related brands and the usage of the same is quite inevitable and not distinctive or exclusive to either campaign.
Kellogg India has issued a statement about the same:
We, at Kellogg, welcome the ruling passed by the Consumer Complaints Council of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on the complaint filed by Curefood India - EatFit against the YouTube advertisement of Kellogg’s masterbrand with the tagline ‘kuch kar dikhaane ki bhookh’.
In its well-informed decision, ASCI has clearly agreed with our stance that both advertisements are not similar so as to suggest any kind of plagiarism. ASCI has rightfully dismissed the complaint by ruling that there was no violation of its code.
The self-regulating body appreciated that the two advertisements are entirely dissimilar in terms of their portrayal, dialogue, imagery, and audiovisual elements and also noted the distinct tag lines of the two advertisements. It further acknowledged that the use of the term 'bhookh' by various food-related brands is quite inevitable and not distinctive or exclusive to either campaign. It understood the fact that our campaign had undergone thorough research and was finalised by September 2022 well before the airing of the complainant’s advertisement in October 2022, thus rendering the blatant accusation of plagiarism completely baseless and unfounded.
We are grateful to ASCI for this decision as it re-affirms our beliefs in our creative ethics while establishing the fact that our campaign bears no similarity whatsoever with any other campaign, past or present.
We very proudly reiterate that the Kellogg’s masterbrand campaign, ‘kuch kar dikhaane ki bhookh’, is a part of the larger campaign that has been built over the years, evolving and reiterating our brand’s purpose and larger message of ‘nourish your great’. The new campaign highlights how nourishing breakfast fuels children to achieve their daily milestones across academics, sports and extra-curricular activities. This film is the first in the campaign and is being rolled out across media such as TV and digital mediums like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, as well as e-commerce.
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