Absurdity that rules commercials in India, shares a plotline to most of the toothpaste ads. What makes them even more absurd is the prop of milky white lab coats.



Lab coats flashing the screens every other in commercial breaks, bring in, science of sale. Doodles of biology diagrams with animate cavity, fighting the star wars for (tooth)crown, come with their ‘expert recommended’ voiceovers. With toothpastes sharing “dentist recommended” dialogues across brands, the viewers are left without doubt. Irony rings in the ads that are all ranked first according to the dentists. What remains unsaid is the sample size and population. When 9 out of 10 dentists support Sensodyne ads, the question of who are the 9, among how many, becomes relevant. Though illusion of 1 in 9 is rosy, but 100 in 900 can’t be ignored.



Colgate Sensitive Pro Relief, employs the voice of Dr Ashima Kakar, whose opinion as well as profession promotes the use of product. Ending with common opinion of common noun, the ad tries to win trust, to sell. Pepsodent beginning with its ‘Dhisoom- Dhisoom’ campaigns moves on to dental labs with Pepsodent Expert Protection and Pro Sentitive.



Veteran actress, Madhuri Dixit Nene snapshots India’s 32 year olds’ cravings, to promote “Oral-B Pro Health that takes care of every 32.” The man in white supports her claim to complete protection with, “many toothpastes in one.” Unbeatable Oral-B shoots itself in the lab to make it more convincing. Replacing white coats, while assuring dazzling white teeth, Sonam Kapoor in Colgate Visible White, promotes pearly white to diamond shine. Shade card borrowed from face creams, features for teeth in the ads. From labs to studios, the bling of photo shoots in the ad, uses the one week challenge of white plus shine.



Close Up ads vibrant in energy, try mirroring the feel of brushing with effortless dancing, to the jingle “paas aao na.” Devoid of dental experts but full with love stories, the youth brand was first to begin the gel paste saga in ‘Kya aap Close up karte hai’ commercial. Scoring hearts across the country with recently created ad, Close Up -Break The Barriers, it prompted, time to change. While choice of gender, age and race is personal, so is the choice to choose. Plots that shift from the product’s use to mere statistics, attraction tales or shade cards, forget in the jungle of marketing what they had begun with.


(Photo Courtesy : Google Images and Twitter)

It’s time to put the toothpaste back in the tube, to come up with ways it hasn’t been seen yet. Statistics of 9 in 10 might have been catchy to begin with but what need of the hour is, is more that lab coat promotions. What surpasses the brand, is what the toothpaste contains, which should again, not to be mistaken with namak and neem claims. Composition that makes the toothpaste effective as an oral health guard is what should steal the limelight Face wash stars Neem, Lemon, Charcoal and the like can always be the icing but maybe not the chief reason to buy a tooth paste.

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SHRISHTI ABROL