Mamaearth's Ghazal Alagh backtracks, deletes post accusing HUL-owned Lakmé of 'copying' and 'backbiting'
This is Ghazal Alagh's second jab at HUL. On Monday, the entrepreneur took a hit at Lakmé for its SPF 50 sunscreen.
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Beauty and skincare brand Mamaearth's founder Ghazal Alagh has accused Hindustan Unilever (HUL) of plagiarizing its products. In a social media post, Alagh posted a list of her company's products and alleged that the legacy brand has copied both ideas and packaging of the company.
According to Alagh, Lakmé 9to5 Sun Expert is a copied version of The Derma's sunscreen, Lakmé's Vitamin C face wash is a copy of Mamaearth's face wash, and Sunsilk's onion shampoo is also a plagiarised version of Mamaearth's onion shampoo. Alagh shared an image mentioning the launch dates of the products, with the title 'OG versus copy'.
Alagh wrote, "We Honasa Consumer Ltd. put a lot of love, effort, and hard work into bringing true innovation to our consumers. Finally, India is getting quality products that they deserve, made for their skin, hair, and weather. Humble request to respect innovation and not plagiarise it".
The post was deleted in under two hours.
This is Alagh's second jab at HUL this week. On Monday, the entrepreneur took a hit at Lakmé for launching SPF 50 sunscreen.
The Mamaearth CEO wrote, "Good competition is always great for any market. It keeps brands from becoming sleepy, and lethargic & brings more innovation for the consumers. Lakmé, welcome to the in-vivo tested SPF 50 club, finally!".
Calling her brand the pioneer in the SPF 50 segment, Alagh wrote, "Indian FMCG has lacked good competition for a long time leading to large traditional brands becoming complacent. We take pride in the fact that we have been challenging these norms and waking up to these brands time and again. We did it with Mamaearth in making brands move towards clean-label ingredients. And now again with The Derma Co. which is showing the way around honest active disclosures & claims based on science. This has led to immense love from consumers which is the envy of many competitors."
"Happy to see traditional brands follow again & even blatantly copy products from name to packaging".
However, netizens do not completely agree with Alagh's remarks, stating that Mamaearth is not quite as original as its founder claims. One person wrote "Having similar ingredients in product formulation is not copying. It is a pretty standard practice in the skincare industry".
The user added that even Mamaearth's products are not exactly original. "It’s not like you have a patent for using certain active combinations in fixed proportions," a LinkedIn user said.
Another user wrote, "Most of these are produced in common factories…so there is no point of creating any entry barrier. The best is to have your own production and barrier them with your own IP. Many pharma giants also sell generic range in their own terminology".
