The following consumer protection actions made headlines this week:
Unilever Plans to Appeal NAD’s Findings on Body Wash Product Advertising
The NAD recommended that Unilever discontinue certain advertising claims for Suave Essential Body Wash products, a decision that Unilever announced it will appeal. After a competitor challenge, the NAD concluded that claims comparing Suave fragrances to Bath & Body Works fragrances were not supported by the advertisers’ consumer perception survey. In addition, the NAD did not find the survey sufficiently reliable due to the fact that it did not meet the minimum of 300 respondents to substantiate a parity claim. Unilever responded that it is a “strong and ongoing supporter of NAD,” but nevertheless plans to appeal the decision to the National Advertising Review Board.
FTC and NY Charge Dietary Supplement with Making Deceptive Claims
NY AG Schneiderman has been busy with consumer protection actions this week, teaming up with the FTC to charge the marketers of dietary supplement Prevagen with making false claims about the product’s memory and cognitive improvement abilities. The marketers ran ads claiming that use of the product dramatically improves memory for users and is “clinically shown” to work, but relied on a study that failed to show that the product improves memory function better than a placebo. The FTC vote to issue a complaint against Prevagen was 2-0, with Commissioner Ohlhausen not participating.