Toothpaste ads are more painful than a toothache

Yesterday, I randomly bumped into a toothpaste ad from Colgate in youtube. Not that it was great but it was definitely different from their usual ads. The success of Swami Ramdev’s Patanjali in India has forced multinational companies including Colgate brand to reinvent how they cater to the Indian audience. The ad (below) still doesn’t get it but it is good to finally, finally see a toothpaste ad without its usual technical gimmicks.

Traditionally, in a toothpaste ad, an expert (??) doctor in a white coat, spoke about two things - 1. a dental disease that nobody understood 2. a certification with an acronym that didn't mean anything to the audience. The marketers want the audience to understand that the product is something that is certified by leading associations along with recommendations from expert doctors. If one brand does it, it is okay. But almost every brand came with their own experts in their own white coats. These ads were more painful than the pain caused by the cavities, gum diseases, tooth decay or bad breath.

Let us see how these toothpaste ads have evolved over the years in India.

In the 1980s, Colgate helped people overcome bad breath

In the 1990s, the marketers used the popularity of Aishwarya Rai, the then newly crowned Miss World, and tried to show how Colgate helped to keep the teeth as good as Aishwarya’s.

Then, they went little creative(??) and taught youngsters how to woo Aishwarya Rai with this ad below

Then, the marketers decided to do something meaningful - 'Introduce dentists wearing a white coat (to show that they are doctors) and make them recommend the Colgate toothpaste'. Little did the poor audience know that this was the start of the various tooth diseases that were going to afflict Indians for the next 15 years.

At first, the white coats spoke about the importance of calcium and minerals

Then, they spoke about cavities

Then they spoke about gum health

Then they spoke about tooth decay but this time, the marketers brought thought creatively again(!!!). They introduced a mother along with a dentist to win the trust of the customers. Mother + Dentist in white coat = Trust & care. My mindvoice in Tamil (Dae, mudiyalada)

Then they spoke about active salts, charcoal and neem. To give more context, Indians were using salt, charcoal and neem before toothpastes came in to the market. Brands like Colgate fought hard to change this behaviour through advertisements. But they ended up selling active salts, charcoal and neem which is funny.

Then they spoke about tooth sensitivity. This time they brought a dentist who was practicing outside India. Since anything 'foreign' is good in India, this is the next big strategy(!!) to win the customers' trust.

Then, they became creative(??) again and used Bollywood star, Ranveer Singh, to transform a boring railway platform through his fresh breath of air.

If you brush your teeth with Colgate, you can transform all the boring places with your fresh breath of air. I know, I know…It was not my idea. It was theirs. But I am sure you must be happy not to see some white coat come and talk about a weird dental disease every time.

Through their latest ad (scroll up to the first video on top), they have shed the traditional ingredients in their ads (dentists in white coats, certifications, bollywood stars) and basically calmed down. It is a relief not only for me but for every Indian audience who have to watch these tasteless ads in the middle of an important cricket match.

What it teaches are two things 1. Toothpaste ads need a major reinvention 2. Multinational companies always struggle to find relevance locally and struggle against local competitors who take the ‘know how’ & cleverly succeed in catering to the audience effectively.

When I was doing my Masters program 10 years ago in Japan, we used to have a ‘Ad Zab’ as part of our marketing class. Each student could bring his/her favorite ad and show it to the class. We used to then dissect the ads. It helped me to understand the different sensitivities and the stories that resonate with different cultures.

I watched the toothpaste ads from several countries while writing this article and realized that these ads need a major reinvention. They are just plain, dull and boring. In some cases, where they used the Bollywood heroes, they look and sound stupid.But it also made me think on what I would do differently to help the customers think about my brand of toothpaste (if I have to sell one) since there is so much competition. What else can we do and who else can we bring other than expert dentists, mothers and bollywood actors to generate trust around a toothpaste brand?

Whenever a product gets commoditised, it is hard to compete on existing dimensions which are considered basic features of a product. In the case of a toothpaste, all the technical specs are basics. Consumers also know that the product cannot make their teeth look like Bollywood actors and that they can get better advice from the dentist next door (who doesn't wear white coats anyway) than the expert doctor who spoke about strange tooth diseases. One idea: Tooth paste manufacturers could develop a dental kit for office goers which could help them check bad breath through a simple process — for example, apply the paste in your tongue and if it turns red, you have bad breath. They could also add a mouth spray or a flavoured tooth paste that could serve as a mint. This could create a movement around personal hygiene especially during this pandemic times and it could enable more consumers to brush multiple times in a day instead of once, which in turn, could lead to more sales(!!).

If you have some interesting ideas to make these ads watchable or if you have seen a good toothpaste ad, please share here (or directly with the advertising agencies that makes these ads). I hope we all can put an end to this advertising menace that manifests in the form of toothpaste ads.