Qld: Tablet battle continues

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2001
Qld: Tablet battle continues

BRISBANE, Aug 7 AAP - Australian-owned Herron Pharmaceuticals has launched a new advertising
campaign in a tit-for-tat battle with the foreign-owned makers of Panadol.

The new campaign, being aired in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, asks consumers to think
about whether it matters if a company is Australian-owned or not.

The ads ask viewers to call one of two telephone numbers to show whether they think
being Australian-owned is important.

Herron chief executive Euan Murdoch said today in the first 24 hours of the ads airing,
the phone lines received 3,000 calls, 84 per cent of which said "yes" to Australian ownership.

Panadol is currently running a campaign comparing Panadol's Australian-made caplets
to Herron's Capseal product, which is temporarily being made in the United States until
new equipment is installed in Australia.

"We have no issue with Herron's claim of Australian ownership in its advertising, although
we do believe it is somewhat ironic - if not hypocritical - because Herron's best-selling
product is made in the USA by American workers," Panadol parent company GlaxoSmithKline
spokesman Alan Schaefer said yesterday.

But Mr Murdoch said the Panadol advertisement compared apples with oranges.

"Panadol's equivalent to our Capseal product (the Gelcap) is finished overseas and
our equivalent to the Panadol caplet product (the Tabsule) they show in the advertisement
is made in Australia," Mr Murdoch said.

Herron had a court victory over GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK-based parent company
of Panadol, earlier this year after the latter tried to stop advertisements pointing out
it was foreign-owned.

AAP pjo/sc/las/bwl

KEYWORD: PANADOL

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.