Healthy Dhara takes the battle to Saffola, Sundrop's court

Very soon or, in fact, sooner than you think, consumers are about to witness a change in the way cooking oil companies advertise. Edible oil brands containing sunflower/safflower oil such as Saffola, Sundrop and others, which have been unabashedly riding on the 'health' bandwagon for more than a decade now, may suddenly find their position threatened by the hitherto 'unhealthy' cooking oils.

Here's why.

Through a spate of recent print advertisements, Dhara - the mustard oil brand from the National Dairy Development Board - is driving home the point that mustard oil is far superior to sunflower oil. What's interesting is that the advertisements seek to destroy the very notion that 'sunflower/safflower oil is best for the heart' - painstakingly created over all these years.

The creative, done by Mudra Ahmedabad, says in no uncertain terms that mustard oil is "best for your heart" and that it "reduces risk of heart diseases by 50 per cent". The ad also says that mustard oil is "found to be two times more effective in preventing Ischemic heart diseases than other oils".

For the uninitiated, Ischemia is a condition in which the blood flow (and thus oxygen) is restricted to a part of the body. Cardiac ischemia is the name for lack of blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscles. Ischemic heart disease, on the other hand, is the term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries. When arteries are narrowed, less blood and oxygen reaches the heart. This is also called coronary artery disease and coronary heart disease. This can ultimately lead to heart attack. Ischemia often causes chest pain or discomfort known as angina pectoris - a common symptom of heart attack.

The Dhara campaign says that mustard oil's superiority has been endorsed by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in its paper, 'Diet and risk of Ischemic Heart Diseases in India'.

According to the creative, scientists have found that Alfa Linolenic Acid (A L A) is very effective in preventing Ischemic heart diseases. Of all the edible oils, mustard oil contains the highest amount of A L A (10-12 per cent) as compared to sunflower oil and safflower oil which contain less than 0.5 per cent of A L A. And, this is what makes Dhara refined vegetable oil - enriched with the highest amount of A L A and mustard - two times more effective for the heart.

While it's early days to predict which way the coin will finally land, but it seems history is repeating itself. In the mid-'80s, puris used to be partial to Postman and Dalda all over India, and cholesterol had not entered our collective consciousness. Then came the onslaught mounted by sunflower/safflower oil brands.

Overnight, erstwhile popular brands Postman and Dalda were pushed to the forgotten corners of the mind, and brands such as Sundrop and Saffola became household names.

A decade-and-a-half down the line, thanks to the incessant bombardment of TVCs propagating the cause of sunflower/safflower oil brands, an entire generation of Indians have grown up believing that only these are good for health. Now, Dhara wants to make them change their mind.

The next stage of brand communication will include a multimedia campaign including TVCs. "We are currently discussing the campaign. The TVC will take at least a month to complete," says Mudra's Ahmedabad branch head Chandan Nath.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!