Toothpaste becomes battleground as U.S.-India tensions spill into company ads

Toothbrush with toothpaste. (George Becker/Pexels)

CHENNAI — Dabur, Indian rival of Colgate-Palmolive, is making its toothpaste a test of nationalism by asking consumers to shun American brands, as companies intensify promotion of local goods amid worsening trade ties with the United States.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reiterated his call to use “Swadeshi,” or made-in-India goods. Children should “make a list” of foreign-branded goods, Modi said, while teachers should push them to not use them.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week imposed tariffs of up to 50 per cent on imported Indian goods, prompting Modi’s supporters to start a WhatsApp campaign to boycott American brands including McDonald’s, Pepsi and Apple.

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Consumer goods company Dabur, valued at US$11 billion, took out a front-page newspaper advertisement this week carrying photos of unbranded toothpaste packs that resemble Colgate packaging. Without naming its rival, the ad said India’s favorite toothpaste brand was American, and Dabur was the “Swadeshi” choice.

“Born there, not here,” it said, referring to the unnamed toothpaste, in a font styled with the red, white and blue of the American flag.

Dabur declined to comment on the advertisement, and Colgate did not respond to queries from Reuters.

Colgate has a 43 per cent share of India’s toothpaste market, followed by the Indian unit of Unilever, home to Pepsodent brand in the country. Dabur is in third place with a 17 per cent share, according to Euromonitor data for 2024.

India’s population of 1.4 billion is a major market for American consumer goods, often purchased from U.S. online retailer Amazon.com, and over the years the reach of U.S. brands has expanded deep into smaller towns.

The Dabur ad in the Times of India newspaper even carried a QR code that took consumers to a shopping link on the Amazon India website, which captures about a third of domestic online sales.

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Karthik Srinivasan, a communications consultant, called the advertising strategies of Dabur and others “moment marketing.”

“How can we gain from that sentiment at least for this week and next? That’s literally what all these brands are doing,” he said.

Others using a similar tactic included Amul, India’s largest dairy, which has published cartoons featuring “Made in India” products on its social media accounts, with one animated ad showing its mascot holding an Indian flag and a slab of butter.

Indian e-mail provider Rediff, popular years ago before the rise of Yahoo and Google Mail, also took out a newspaper ad calling its service the “mail of India” that helps to keep customers’ business intelligence local.

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Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Tom Hogue