Drools Pet Food Private Limited - Drools Cat Food - Dry (Adult & Kitten Nutrition all flavours) and Wet Mousse ( all flavours)

Recommendation: Upheld | Medium: Industry Member

The ASCI had approached the advertiser for its response in addressing the grievances of the complainant and forwarded the details of the complaint, verbatim, to the advertiser with a request to respond to the same. The advertiser was offered an option to seek an Informal Resolution (IR) of the complaint by modifying or withdrawing the claims in the advertisement, or alternately to substantiate the claims with supporting data. The advertiser was also offered an opportunity for a telecon with the ASCI Secretariat, which they did not avail and submitted their response. The advertiser in their response stated that they manufacture all the cat food sold by it in India and does not import any cat food, while its competitors import all cat food sold by them in India. The volume of cat food imported by competitors clearly corresponds to the volume of cat food sold by them. Through analysis of the quantitative data, it is clear that Drools is a market leader in the cat food sector. As claim support data, the advertiser provided the following documents – (1) Report containing quantitative tonnage data relating to export of cat food into India, (2) Comparative quantitative data including details of cat food manufactured by Drools. The advertiser’s response with the claim support data was referred to an independent technical expert of ASCI. The expert opinion was then shared with the complainant and the advertiser for making any additional submissions. The complainant responded to the expert opinion. In their response they stated that the claim on the website is not specific to Drools Dry cat food only but also their Drools wet range and hence the source and reference for substantiating this claim should cover Drools branded wet cat food range of products as well. Claiming “India’s No.1 Cat Food Brand” without India specific independent data in support makes this claim misleading. On receiving the expert opinion, the advertiser had a telecon with the ASCI Secretariat and requested additional time to respond to the queries raised in the opinion. As a special gesture, the advertiser was granted this extension; however, they did not respond within the given timelines. The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) viewed the Website advertisement (https://drools.com/cats-dry-food/ https://drools.com/cat-mousse/) considered the complaint, the advertiser’s response along with the claim support data, and the opinion of the expert presented at the meeting. The CCC observed that the advertiser submitted a summary note and supporting data showing import and manufacturing quantities for certain brands of cat food, as well as figures for the advertiser’s own cat food. The CCC discussed that while the data for dry cat food might suggest that the advertiser leads in this segment, there are several issues with the submission. The source(s) and reference period are not stated in the advertisement. The submission refers to only a few cat food brands and does not indicate whether other cat food brands exist in the market. The data provided is only for dry cat food, whereas the claim covers the entire cat food category, including wet products. The data on imports is from an international data provider, but no certification or authentication of this data was CONFIDENTIAL Page 18 of 33 provided. Similarly, the data for the advertiser’s manufactured products has no independent verification. Overall, no comparative study was provided with other cat food brands in India to establish that the advertiser’s cat food brand holds a leadership position (No.1). Based on this assessment, the CCC concluded that in the absence of independent, comprehensive data covering the full range of cat food and market players, the claim, “India's No.1 Cat Food Brand”, was inadequately substantiated. The claim is misleading by exaggeration. The said claim in the advertisement contravened Chapter I, Clauses 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4 of the ASCI Code. This complaint was UPHELD. The CCC noted that the advertiser has agreed to include a reference to the research report as a disclaimer in the advertisement.