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V Gangadhar

The 102 per cent factor

For the past few days, corporate heads and ad whiz kids in India are animatedly discussing the 102 per cent solution. It all began when Hindustan Lever Ltd advertised that their Pepsodent toothpaste was '102 per cent better' than the 'leading' toothpaste. Colgate Palmolive Ltd, against whose product this ad was aimed, was justifiably miffed and lodged a complaint with the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, which ruled a halt to the '102 per cent' ad campaign. For you and me, all this may sound silly. But both companies spent huge amounts advertising the '102 per cent' product and its rebuttal at the hands of the MRTPC.

The issue in this column is not the relative merits of a particular toothpaste. Instead, I wonder what 102 per cent means? Does such a thing really exist? All these years, I was under the impression that 100 per cent was the highest and that nothing could cross that mark. Thus, if someone marketed a brand of toothpaste claiming it was 102 per cent better than the others, I would not swallow the claim. Why stop at 102 per cent? Why not go all the way and claim that your toothpaste, hair oil or shaving cream, was 300, 500 or even 700 per cent superior to other brands? When you allowed a margin of only two per cent, it did not sound all that convincing. Get my point?

All this 102 stuff took me back to my college days, both in Ernakulam and Palakadu. I was a student of mathematics then. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at it. I watched awestruck at some of my classmates regularly scored 120, 125 or 130 per cent in maths, while I just about managed to scrape through each and every exam. How did they do it?

For instance, the algebra and trigonometry question papers had eight questions, with the stipulation that students were required to answer only five of them to get full marks. But this was not enough for the geniuses in the class. They successfully tackled all the questions and ended up getting more than 100 per cent. Of course, the official marksheet showed only 100 marks, but I could only watch enviously as they flaunted their answer books which boasted of figures well above 100.

There were other cases of over 100 per cent claims in college. The students who claimed to know what questions would be asked in the exams always swore they were more than 105 per cent dependable. After the exam, though, the 105 per cent factor fell flat on its face. Yet we continued to hang around these students, hoping they would favour us with the questions.

In Gujarat, where I spent the early part of my working life, I faced the 100 plus factor again. The average Ahmedabadi punctuated each and every claim he made with the statement, "Arre, hun tho kavoochu, ah ek sau ek taka thavanu chhe (I am telling you, I'm 101 per cent sure this is going)." Normally, his claims had to do with share prices or India's chances in cricket matches. Since I was in no position to invest in shares in those days, such claims left me cold. But his 101 per cent confidence that India would win an occasional test match often backfired, as we ended up losing the match once again.

The 100 per cent plus factor haunted me during my days as a newspaper reporter. This happened mostly while covering political events, particularly elections. During heated political campaigns, I was often in the midst of claims and counter claims on whether a particular candidate would win or lose. The figure mentioned was again "ek sau ek taka". Some of my journalistic colleagues used this figure to explain the chances of the Congress, while others favoured the BJP or Independents. In most cases, though, the claims were hollow. As far as I can remember, not one 101 per cent candidate won an election.

I do not know what prompted the Hindustan Lever whiz kids to climb on the 100 per cent plus bandwagon. These claims are pretty dangerous and could make a fool out of people. Even the germs, which were supposed to disappear after a brushing with the 102 per cent toothpaste, must be laughing at such silly claims. I hope the two toothpaste giants fighting this war give up these costly ad campaigns and distributed free samples of their products to the people. Let the people decide if toothpaste A is 102 per cent superior to toothpaste B. I am prepared to be a judge of this historic contest provided I continue to get free samples for, say, a year or so!

Illustration: Dominic Xavier