Yesterday, we posted about a decision in which P&G challenged claims that Rascals made about the absorption capabilities of its diapers. Rascals also advertised: “210,000+ 5-star reviews of Rascals Products.” P&G thought something about that claim smelled funny and challenged that, too.
At the time of the challenge, the claim didn’t include a disclosure. After P&G initiated the challenge, Rascals added a disclosure explaining that the claim was “based on all reviews of Rascals diapers, training pants, and wipes across websites globally, including incentivized and organic reviews.”
Here are some key points from the decision:
- P&G submitted data from a third-party service suggesting that almost 59% of the reviews were incentivized, and P&G argued that should be clearly disclosed. NAD thought that the disclosure Rascals added did enough to communicate that some reviews were incentivized. However, NAD did not think the disclosure was sufficiently conspicuous.
- P&G suggested that because Rascals may sell different diapers in other countries, counting reviews for those diapers in ads directed to US consumers may be misleading. Rascals presented evidence that diapers offered in the US are the same globally, and NAD seemed satisfied with that.
- P&G submitted a chart showing a country-by-country breakdown of reviews posted on Rascals websites and pointed out that the totals for six countries were nearly the same, even though the markets were very different sizes. Because Rascals failed to provide “evidence as to its reviews collection process and the controls in place to avoid double counting,” NAD recommended it stop making the claim.
NAD noted that consumer reviews “can be an important component in a consumer’s purchasing decision,” but that those “reviews are only as valuable as their authenticity as well as the transparency and accuracy in the means by which they are gathered and used.”
If you want to tout your good reviews, make sure you have sound methods to collect and count them. And remember that if some of those reviews are incentivized, you will likely need to clearly disclose that in your ads.
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