Author: Rezwan

Reacting on some recent court rulings in Maldives, Maldivian blogger Yaamyn, who blogs at “Slicker Than Your Average”, comments: “the Maldivian judiciary is an embarrassment, and completely deserves not only our contempt, but also the strongest condemnation.”

Ratmale at Serendipity discusses about the exploitation of paddy farmers “because two of the Agricultural Ministers in Sri Lanka are directly or indirectly owners of the largest rice mills”. The market price of rice is 86% higher than what the farmers are getting for their paddy.

Sujeewa de Silva at Random Reflections of a Kind blog discusses about the “terrible state” of the Sri Lankan public transport system and why people shun away from them.

Blogadda interviews Indian blogger Arnab Ray aka Greatbong, who is working as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at University of Maryland. His blog Random Thoughts Of A Demented Mind was adjudged Indiblog of the year 2008 last year.

Spring Of Autumn lists a series of problems associated with the current public transport of Karachi and urges the authorities to hear their plights.

“It is hard to be on Facebook and avoid Farmville. It’s Global addiction,” comments Hina Safdar at Chowrangi Blog while discussing the popularity of the online Facebook game app.

Blogadda compiles the reactions of some Twitter users on the recent scandal of Swami Nithyananda, a Karnataka based spiritual leader.

A whale entangled with a latch of fishing net on its tail fins was seen by a tourist group in the Swatch-of-No-Ground (SONG) of Bay or Bengal, the largest submarine canyon on the Bangladesh shelf. Kewkradong urges for a cumulative action to save the life of the wounded whale.

Screenshot from video, courtesy Vivek Bhatia

In India a recent advertisement on TV openly comparing between rival detergent brands caused an uproar in the blogosphere with bloggers discussing about rivalry, fair competition and ethics.

Asstha Jain at Add2Ad blog informs:

On Friday (beginning of weekend), all eyes were widened to see an ad from Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) for their brand Rin in which they do more than direct comparison with their competitor Proctor & Gamble (P&G) brand Tide (Tide Natural rather). The ad not only speak the product attributes of Tide which they claim but also hit their marketing theme. [..] The rivalry between these two brands is on since long when HUL reduced its price by 10-15% percent when Tide was offering 20% extra washing powder.

Rin Detergent vs. Tide Naturals. Video uploaded by YouTube user Kunaljha123:

Gupta Infomedia explains:

The voiceover “Tide se kahin behtar safedi de Rin (Rin washes much whiter than Tide)” leaves nothing to imagination. It's war, open and direct. Barring rare exceptions, fast moving consumer goods brands have stayed away from direct hits at competing brands.

Vivek Bhatia at Markadising Zone notes:

It’s the first time in India that competing brands have been named rather than pixilated (as they usually are) in a TV commercial.

Vivek provides updates as the battle has moved to court:

HUL claims that the Rin commercial is in line of advertising regulations laid by the industry. HUL terms its claim to be factual, accurate and substantiated based on laboratory tests done through globally accepted protocols in independent third party laboratories. ASCI has even issued a notice to HUL to substantiate its claim.

P&G has also moved to High court against the disparaging advertisement of HUL's Rin. Prior to this, HUL had challenged P&G's claim in its advertisement on Tide Natural. On being directed by ASCI, P&G seems to have modified its advertisement.

Anoop Vijayan thinks that this advertisement violated all norms of healthy competition. Charu questions:

Is it healthy to throw mud at the competitor to state your point and increase the sales? Does these advertisements really affect the buying pattern of the public?

However, Frankie thinks that the ad was a free publicity for P&G by HUL. Ashok at Doing Jalsa And Showing Jilpa takes a hilarious look at this issue noting that “controversy is the new advertising”.

Harish Bijoor at Indian Marketing Trends notices that the Indian brands are getting back to the good old basics. He opines that the current piece of Rin advertising is very clear in its visual language of comparison:

Hey! This is old hat. This kind of comparative advertising used to work in the good old days when consumers sat up and made purchase decisions basis product attributes and product delivery norms in terms of solutions. Good scent and whiteness are rather both generic to the category. How much ever anyone shouts in messaging such as this, consumers are going to be yawning and saying what next. Consumers hate this kind of relapse into age-old advertising formats that have the same old message of the sixties with the creative ability and excellence of production standards of the 2000’s staring back at them. Wake up and smell the change.

The battles between brands are growing intense in India which is evident from the most famous cola wars in the past decade to the recent Onida vs Nokia advertisement war. Sumathi Chandrashekaran at Spicy IP talks about another battle between kitchen cleaner brands ‘Mr Muscle Kitchen Cleaner' and ‘CIF Cream', which was settled in court.

So it remains to be seen how Indian consumers deal with these comparative ads. They need to be aware of what competitive advertising can do.

Ugich Konitari from Mumbai shares a wonderful story highlighting the joy of giving.

Hilath is starting a service in which Maldivian artists' works will be displayed in his blog (in thumbnail pictures) and the bids will be updated regularly. When the artist is satisfied with a price – the artwork will go to the highest bidder.

Devanesan Nesiah at Groundviews asks: “can we in Sri Lanka not find ways to bridge our much more modest but yet widening ethnic divides?”

Sabeen Ahmad at Divanee lists 10 Pakistani diaspora celebrities who are becoming far more visible in American and European media.

“The world often views India as a country with huge poverty.” But was it always like this? “From 1st Century AD till 1250 AD, India had the world’s largest GDP.” Sumanth at Desicritics gives a run down on India's influence on the world history and economy.

Photo blogger and journalist Monirul Alam highlights the threat of salinity and lack of drinking water in the Southwest coastal region of Bangladesh with his photo-essay.

Shirazi at Doodh Patti talks about the Gowalmandi Food and Heritage Street in Lahore.

Aastha Jain at Add2Ad blog discusses the ethics behind the recent advertising battle between two detergent brands Rin and Tide in India.

Habib Siddiqui raises some unanswered questions while commemorating the first anniversary of the tragic incidents of BDR Mutiny and Massacre in Dhaka.

Sans Serif discusses about the controversial article on the burqa by Taslima Nasrin, the exiled Bangladeshi author. After the article was published in the weekly magazine section of a Kannada daily, protests erupted and two persons had died.

“Does MF Husain accepting Qatari citizenship mean India is intolerant?” Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings says a resounding no to that.