NAD Finds Perdue “Free Range,” “All-Veggie” Ads Misleading

The National Advertising Division (NAD) has recommended that Perdue Farms Inc. modify or discontinue broadcast and YouTube advertisements for the company’s Harvestland Organic chicken, finding the ads could mislead consumers into believing all Perdue chicken is organically raised. NAD found that the company’s “Free Range” and “All-Veggie Diet” ads featured “general brand references” to Perdue but only “momentary visual references to Harvestland Organic,” potentially leading consumers to conflate the two. The ads, which asserted that Perdue’s chickens are”happy,” also “clearly stated the general claim, ‘Perdue, raising more organic chickens than anyone in America,’” NAD noted. The board further cited a consumer-perception survey submitted by Perdue, finding that “the survey showed that substantially more respondents took away a message about the Perdue brand, generally.”

“NAD recommended that the advertiser discontinue the broadcast and YouTube commercials or modify them – including the YouTube description copy – to make clear that the advertising pertains to Perdue’s Harvestland Organic sub-brand, and not the Perdue brand as a whole,” according to a press release. “NAD also determined that if the commercials were appropriately modified, the advertiser’s use of ‘hashtag happy’ would not be misleading.”