Throwback Thursday: Was Vicco Turmeric's jingle a jibe?

Back in the days, a large part of a brand's appeal and recall value hinged on its jingle. Sadly, jingles are fading into oblivion today, and there are hardly any memorable hooks that one can remember from the recent past. Proponents of this dying marketing tool believe that jingles help the brand stay on top of consumers' minds. That's perhaps one of the reasons why one still remembers Vicco Turmeric despite being bombarded by a barrage of skin cream ads over the years.

Even decades after the first ad for the brand came out, it's difficult to say "Vicco Turmeric" in anything other than a sing-song voice. The "...nahi cosmetic" part follows soon after. It turns out, there is an interesting story behind the infectious jingle.

The Vicco story

According to the company website, Vicco Turmeric was introduced in 1975 as an ayurvedic turmeric-based skin cream and a panacea for all skin problems.

Back then, it was marketed in the villages through a loudspeaker mounted inside a rickshaw with a person announcing the cream and its benefits.

In 1975, the company commissioned ad films, which were shown in movie theatres. Since advertising policies weren't framed back then, Vicco had to wait for years until they could air the ads on Doordarshan.

Come 1984 and Gajanan Pendharkar, the Chairman of Vicco Laboratories had an idea -- to showcase the ads alongside the primetime serials. Vicco secured a spot before the serial Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, which popularised not only Doordarshan but also Vicco's products. The first ad featured a then-unknown Sangeeta Bijlani.

Vicco vs excise department

When Vicco was basking in its success, the company came into the crosshairs of the Central Excise Department. It contended that Vicco products are marketed as Ayurvedic only to avoid the higher excise duty levied on non-Ayurvedic brands.

The department then categorised the products as cosmetics and slapped the company with a lawsuit in 1985.

The judgement came out in Vicco's favour, stating that both Vajradanti and Turmeric Skin Cream were in fact Ayurvedic. There were stringent rules put into place by the Food and Drug Administration for the manufacture of ayurvedic products, and Vicco maintained that they were being followed.

The excise department then approached the Bombay High Court in 1988 only to be disappointed as it upheld the previous ruling. The petition even reached the apex court where it was again dismissed in favour of Vicco.

The litigation was then finally settled in 2008 when the Supreme Court ruled that Vicco products were indeed ayurvedic in nature.

Brand consultant Karthik Srinivasan explains in a series of tweets:

The power and longevity of a memorable brand jingle!
There is a story behind why was this jingle conceived.
In 1976, the Central Excise Department sent a show-cause notice to Vicco Laboratories as to why Vicco Vajradanti (toothpaste) and Vicco Turmeric (cream) should not be 1/7 pic.twitter.com/8UfxZmsIme

— Karthik ?? (@beastoftraal) June 19, 2021

Jingle or jibe?

As the back-and-forth with the Excise Department continued, Vicco thought it was high time that they zhuzh up the jingle. Thus was born the "Vicco Turmeric, nahi cosmetic..." tune.

The obvious purpose was to reiterate their stance as an ayurvedic product against the allegations of the excise department. But was the bonus benefit to take a jibe at the excise department who were hell-bent on making Vicco pay the cosmetics taxes? Some feel that it was intentionally added to thumb nose at the department.

6/7 jingle came into existence. It's a little too literal as a response to the tax claims, but it worked both ways - towards the public, and towards the revenue authorities!
And here are millennials/youngsters recalling every line of that jingle for fun, on Twitter!

— Karthik ?? (@beastoftraal) June 19, 2021

What we do know for a fact is that Vicco Turmeric has endured through the ages in the minds of the people. It's no surprise that the cream still holds a hallowed space among skincare products.