Comparative advertising on increase as French companies begin pushing envelope

摘要

PARIS - Germany's Intersnack group launched Feb. 1 a new series of television commercials comparing its Vico brand of instant mashed potatoes with Nestle's market-leading Mousseline, casting aside conventional wisdom that French regulators would notaccept comparative advertising in the food sector. The comparative ads - prepared for Intersnack by the Paris office of global advertising giant Foote, Cone & Belding Worldwide - feature product packaging for Vico and an unnamed competitor, readily recognized as Nestle's Mousseline, which holds a dominant 65 percent share of the French market. While the televised spots take pains to avoid filming the front of the Mousseline packaging or the brand logo, a voice-over narrator makes direct reference to thedifferences between Vico, which is described as "100 percent pure potatoes," and the competing brand, which is shown to contain a variety of artificial emulsifiers and preservatives, including sodium monostearate and sodium disulfite.