Be aware: Companies are showing less tolerance for direct or implied attacks by rivals in marketing and advertising.
Complaints to NAD (the National Advertising Division) of the Council of the Better Business Bureaus are rising.
Complaints have flown into the NAD so fast this year that the total number of complaints filed for 2009 is expected to greatly exceed 2008’s total.
With the economy in such dire straits and business getting harder to come by, companies are challenging each other at the slightest hint of denigration, warned Andrea Levine, Director of the NAD.
Three examples:
- Whirlpool challenged Electrolux’s claim that its cooking range “boils water in 90 seconds.”
- General Mills, makers of Progresso Soups, challenged Campbell’s claims that its soups “test better and are more natural than Progresso soups.”
- Cadbury challenged Wrigley’s ads for Eclipse gum, which state that Eclipse kills bad breath germs while “other gums just mask bad breath.”
NAD suggested that Campbell’s drop its claim and that Electrolux and Wrigley’s either discontinue or modify their claims.
