New Delhi: Even today when 21-year-old Harsha searches for toothpaste on the big shelves of mini supermarkets, she can’t help but turn to Colgate Active Salt or its many variants.
“I Can’t Help But Imagine Actor Lara Dutta Erupting Out Of Nowhere To Ask Me” If there is salt in my toothpaste (If I have salt in my toothpaste),” Mini, who lives out of Delhi, told ThePrint.
In 2010FMCG major Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd launched an advertisement for Colgate Active Salt Toothpaste which was new in its ingredients and essayed an assertive, confident image.
advertisement Dutta is shown playing the role of a cashier in a grocery store when suddenly a customer (played by actor Sahil Anand) feels uneasy, indicating a toothache. Dutta is then portrayed as a TV reporter delivering iconic dialogues: “Is there salt in your toothpaste?“(Is there salt in your toothpaste?) Then she explains the benefits of the product.
This question became one of the most remembered taglines by consumers.
There was something about Dutta’s transition from check-out counter girl to reporter in seconds that really impressed people. Mini said, “She stopped the guy and for a few seconds in the ad I was scared, but it was just as fun.”
The ad turned Colgate into cult status. The ad was created by Red Fuse Communications, an integrated global WPP team built for Colgate-Palmolive worldwide.
There were later advertisements in the same format – celebrities playing journalists took questions in a dramatic fashion.
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public reception
Before Colgate’s ad, Indian consumers had not seen a product that contained salt in something that was considered sweet. It was shocking to see a popular toothpaste brand experimenting with salt.
“For a second I thought it was a joke, and then when I saw it on the stand I knew I needed to try it,” Minnie said.
Vishwajit Rana, an advertising professional who lives in Gurugram, told ThePrint, “It’s a category (oral hygiene) that you don’t really pay much attention to unless you have a problem, so there’s an underlying belief in it. “
This ‘trust’ is also reflected in the company’s figures. In 2016, 55 percent Colgate-Palmolive held a share of the market share in the oral hygiene industry. Of the 55 per cent, 7 per cent was held by the active salt product. About 25 per cent of Active Salt’s market share was from South India.
In the same year, a new version of Colgate Active Salt was able to capture 1 percent market share. In March 2020Colgate-Palmolive was still able to hold 52.7 per cent of the market share, despite stiff competition from herbal giants like Patanjali and Dabur.
These advertisements also became very popular memes among school going children. People also used the tagline “Is there salt in your toothpaste? to joke and make fun of.
“As a kid, I remember it was a funny running joke that everyone participated in. It was one of the few jokes I could make at home and people didn’t find it too offensive and Often used to participate in them,” Mini recalled.
why did it work
The team at Red Fuse was using what is known as a ‘.blockade campaignFormatted for a while and wanted to refresh it—to increase the recall value of the ad.
Which is why, although Colgate’s commercials were earlier favored by actors like Sandhya Mridul and Koel Purie, this one featuring Dutta became really popular. It wasn’t just the fast and rapid-fire nature of the conversation between Dutta and Anand that really sold the ad to consumers. This was the absurd nature of the question itself.
Rana said, “When someone suddenly questions you like this you can’t help but wonder – ‘oh well, I didn’t know there was something like this in the market’. And especially when you have one. There’s an established brand that’s saying, ‘Oh, there’s some truth to it’ like you are. That’s why they’ve been able to last for decades.”
“The ad was on point and I think it’s absurd because our media was not like that,” he said.
The question asked in the advertisement is not personal, but simply a shocking one. Hearing someone asking what kind of toothpaste you use and if it has salt in it definitely made my ears feel weird.
If there were variations in this tagline, it was because Colgate was promoting a new product. “You as a marketer require a huge amount of courage to do something different and unfortunately we rarely do that in Indian advertising. We go with tried-and-tested methods,” said Rana .
This format of advertising really worked for the brand as they featured more actors in different forms of the original ad. Actresses Kareena Kapoor Khan and Anushka Sharma, also posing as journalists, asked the victims, “Is there salt in your toothpaste?”.
Explanation in pop culture
Delivery Service swiggy instamart Colgate ad came out with its own spin in 2021. The Swiggy ad was one of a series of several that were created to recreate the iconic Colgate ad.
Several other brands came up with “their own renditions” of Colgate.Is there salt in your toothpaste?” Tagline, as seen in an advertisement by a milk brand country happy in 2020.