NAD Recommends Campbell Soup Change Prego® “Baby Expert” Ads

Responding to a challenge from Ragù® ­maker Mizkan Americas
Inc., the National Advertising Division (NAD) has recommended
that Campbell Soup Co. change broadcast ads featuring toddlers
as “life­-long pasta experts,” finding the ads are “puffery” and do
not contain “a claim about the preferences of toddlers.” The ads
showed a split­-screen with one child eating and one child refusing
the food. Campbell Soup said the claim was substantiated by a
“statistically significant” taste test conducted with subjects aged six
or older comparing Prego® and Ragù® sauces, but NAD said the
ads did not contain a provable claim that young children prefer
one sauce over another.

Issue 637