Colgate research

Colgate’s long-standing claim that more than 80 per cent of dentists recommend its toothpaste is “misleading” and must never be used again, the advertising watchdog has ruled. 

The Advertising Standards Authority banned the slogan after finding that a poster campaign for Colgate was in breach of advertising rules. The claim, which has appeared on posters and adverts, is based on telephone surveys of dentists and hygienists carried out by the manufacturers. 

However, the ASA found that the survey allowed each dentist to recommend more than one toothpaste. “The claim would be understood by readers to mean that 80 per cent of dentists recommend Colgate over and above other brands, and the remaining 20 per cent would recommend different brands,” the ASA said.

The television advert for Colgate Total featured a woman saying: "As a nurse, I keep people healthy by fighting bacteria", as on-screen text stated: "Representation of nurse."

She was then shown visiting her dentist, and said: "So I was shocked when my dentist showed me all the bacteria in my mouth, the cause of most dental problems. He recommended I switch to Colgate Total, and wow. The bacteria was practically gone."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form and told Colgate not to imply that products were endorsed by healthcare professionals in future unless that was the case.

Colgate Palmolive is a worldwide producer and distributor of household, healthcare and personal care products. It is a global leader in the oral care hygiene market, with a market share of 42.1% in the global toothpaste market and 32.3% in the manual toothbrush market. However, the company has had a relatively challenging fiscal 2018 so far, largely due to due to rising commodity costs and volatile exchange rates, in addition to weak category demand in many key markets. Despite this, the company’s net sales were up 4% year-over-year (y-o-y) while organic sales grew 1% y-o-y, largely driven by volume growth of 2% and flat pricing globally in the first half of fiscal 2018.

Colgate is the market leader in the toothpaste industry, with having many toothpaste variants, including a children’s range. According to a 2015 report by market research company Kantar Worldpanel, Colgate is the only brand in the world purchased by more than half of all households.
In 2018, Colgate faced controversy with their advertising long-standing claim that more than 80 per cent of dentists recommend its toothpaste with it being named “misleading” and advertising watchdog stating that they must never use it again. Colgate’s children’s toothpaste uses the likes of Minions, Barbie and recognisable cartoon characters, until recently. They have added the addition to the characters with their own range of Colgate ‘smiles’ that use the C’ of Colgate to create a series of smiling faces. With Colgate having many variations of toothpaste, they have different layouts, however the red logo is always incorporated and the use of blue is also very prevalent.