On 28 September 2026, the Delhi High Court restrained Bombay Shaving Company from running even its revised Switch4 advertisement, ruling that there was no perceptible difference between the new film and the original it had already ordered off air.
The Switch4 campaign, featuring actor Gajraj Rao, was built around a real product idea: BSC’s four-blade cartridge can be fitted onto existing three-blade razor handles, a category Gillette dominates. To dramatise this, BSC constructed a fictional courtroom scene. Justice Jyoti Singh called it an outright mockery of court proceedings and directed the film be taken down. BSC submitted a revised version, arguing the film never once named Gillette. The court was not persuaded. The revised version carried, in the court’s assessment, the same disparaging impact as the first.
This was not the first round. In 2024, Gillette had already taken BSC to the same court over its Sensi Smart 3 campaign, which depicted a competitor’s razor handle catching fire. BSC withdrew that ad and the matter settled through mediation in February 2026. The pattern reveals BSC’s strategic logic: challenge the dominant player’s product trust, generate media noise from the dispute, and let the controversy substitute for a marketing budget a startup cannot always match. Procter and Gamble’s Gillette can sustain a litigation calendar far longer than BSC can absorb reputational drag.
The lesson for every challenger brand is precise. Comparative advertising is legal in India. It must, however, be accurate and must not disparage. Once a campaign tips into ridicule, the incumbent does not need to win on brand perception. It wins on stamina. A restraint order removes the campaign and simultaneously strips the credibility the challenger was trying to borrow from the market leader it targeted.
Provocation can be a strategy. In BSC’s case, the court decided twice that it was evidence.
Related reading: The Shaving Brand That Realised Indian Men Didn’t Know They Had a Skincare Problem · Complan and Horlicks Fought Over Which Drink Made Kids Taller. The Real Product Was a Parent’s Anxiety · Marico Sells Two Grooming Brands to the Same Young Indian Man. Only One of Them Is Actually About Hair
(Verify facts here: scconline.com, livelawbiz.com, exchange4media.com, bestmediainfo.com)
