Simba roars and 'copycat' comes up with crumbs

A small local potato crisp manufacturer has to change its logo and packaging after Simba Chips accused it of being a copycat.

The Advertising Standards Authority partially upheld Simba's complaint against Krunch Potato Chips last week, saying Krunch had not adequately justified the similarities between its crowned logo and Simba's.

In its complaint, Simba said the crown in Krunch's logo and its slogan "The King of Flavour!" exploited elements of its logo and taglines "Roarrrs with Flavour" and "King of Snacks".

It said the elements Krunch had used were associated with its 60-year-old brand, which had a 67% value share of the chips market.

Simba also said Krunch's slogan amounted to an unsubstantiated claim as it implied that it had the best flavour among all its competitors, which it could not prove.

But Krunch claimed the word "king" was also used by other chips brands and was not solely associated with Simba.

It said the crowns used by Simba and in its logo were different as Simba's crown was traditionally worn by a king and its crown by a queen.

It said its "The King of Flavour!" slogan was an exaggeration and could not be interpreted literally.

ASA agreed with Krunch that the reasonable consumer would not see its slogan as fact but sided with Simba on the other aspects of its complaint.

ASA said Krunch had failed to prove the image of a crown and Simba's taglines were not the brand's original intellectual thought.

Krunch said it planned to appeal as the cost of withdrawing its packaging might have devastating consequences for its business.

Krunch general manager Mohammed Gathoo said: "We don't want to piggy-back off a giant [in the chips market]. We are just looking at [promoting] good flavours."

Simba declined to comment.