It seems that Colgate was scouting for a new model for quite some time. In March, the company shot the whole episode once again with the new girl. The new campaign--which now has a new teacher in the old schoolroom--hit the media on April 17.

In the new commercial while the storyboard remains the same, the company has reduced the number of students--but the teacher, Ruby, is gone. In her place, Pooja now flashes her Sensation White smiles across the classroom. When contacted, an audibly vexed Ruby Bhatia snapped: ``It is all over. I do not want to talk about it. Please do not ask me any questions on this subject.'' BothColgate and its ad-agency Rediffusion-DY&R, remained tight-lipped and refused to comment despite repeated requests.

It may be recalled that Colgate had to face embarrassment on this commercial even before it was aired for the first time in January 1998. Three days before the launch of the new Colgate commercial, arch rival, Hindustan Lever, pulled out from its archives another Ruby Bhatia commercial--this one, promoting Close-Up toothpaste. Since then, the model-turned-VJ has been flashing her pearly smile for rival camps on the tube.

The skirmish marked the first time that HLL and Colgate bared fangs on the advertising front--hitherto the battle for marketshare was fought on retail shelves. First, HLL pre-empted Colgate's move and launched Close-Up Ultra Whitening to combat Colgate Sensation Whitening, both of which are fighting for market share in the category of whitening toothpastes.

Then came the snafu over the Ruby Bhatia commercials--with the model appearing for the two rival brandssimultaneously. While in the Close-Up ads, Ruby plays a cameo role leveraging on her celebrity status, in the Colgate storyboard she is simply the teacher who moves from `yellow' and `off-white' teeth to Sensation White teeth.

While HLL had taken Close-Ups of Ruby Bhatia way back in 1996, the company decided to re-air the ad-film in January 1999--just when Colgate was ready to launch its Ruby Bhatia commercial. While the Colgate Sensation Whitening ad hit the air on January 10, 1998, the Close-Up ad was launched three days earlier.

At the time, while the Colgate camp gnashed its teeth in anger over the ``foul play'', the HLL camp defanged the attack with its logic: even though Ruby Bhatia's contract with HLL had expired long ago, HLL was permitted to use the Close-Up commercial at any point of time. Bhatia was signed on by Colgate on November 15, 1998.

With Colgate now tactfully--and tacitly--replacing Ruby with Pooja, a leading art director from the ad-industry sighs with relief. ``Finally, theconfusion is over. The product is almost the same. The USP is also the same. And to add to the confusion, both companies featured the same model. Now at least, we have a fresh face promoting the product.''

Aha, but there is still one question: why would Colgate not use a new storyboard to go with the new model, and a fresh campaign for a fresh face? Watch this space.