According to a news source, the Council of Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division (NAD) has determined that Anheuser Busch promotions for Michelob ULTRA Light Cider® comply with Food and Drug Administration definitions and guidelines. The company apparently claims that the product has one-third fewer calories than its competitors, and the ad industry’s self-regulatory investigative unit “determined that the advertiser had provided a reasonable basis for the claim.” NAD considered the product’s calorie content, the calorie content of other leading hard ciders and their market share, as well as whether the brewer’s claim provided “meaningful and accurate information to consumers.” The company was reportedly “pleased with NAD’s decision.” See Law360, February 5, 2013.
Category Archives National Advertising Division
The Council of Better Business Bureaus’ National Advertising Division (NAD), which serves as the investigative arm of the advertising industry’s voluntary self-regulation program, has recommended that Heartland Sweeteners cease making some claims about its Ideal® sweetener product. The recommendation apparently followed a complaint by Merisant Co., a Heartland competitor, that Ideal® is not “natural” or “more than 99 percent natural” as the company claims because the majority of its sweetness comes from the artificial sweetener sucralose. While Heartland agreed that its sweetener contains sucralose, the company contends that the natural sweetener Xylitol is the product’s main ingredient. According to NAD, Ideal® as a whole may be “more than 99% natural,” but “the context in which it is presented may still cause it to convey a message that is false or misleading to consumers.” NAD found that the product’s sweetness is “not due primarily to Xylitol, but, rather, the synthetic sucralose it…
