NEW YORK — The National Advertising Division (NAB) has supported claims related to Unilever-owned Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash in a challenge brought by Procter and Gamble Co.
In a decision released this week, NAB determined that Unilever United States Inc. had offered sufficient support of its claims that Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash moisturizes skin for 24 hours, nourishes skin, and provides “deep moisture.”
In reaching its decision, the NAB cited a study supplied by Unilever in support of its claim that the Dove body wash provided skin hydration over a 24-hour period following a single wash.
Although P&G submitted its own studies challenging the short-term moisturizing study submitted by Unilever, NAD found that Unilever’s study was appropriate and sufficient to support the 24-hour claim, and that P&G failed to show that Unilever’s study was flawed, or that its own studies were more reliable.
Cincinnati-based P&G also challenged Dove’s Deep Moisture Body Wash “round-the-clock deep moisture” claim. And P&G challenged the product name, asserting that “deep moisture” falsely implied a moisturizing benefit.
NAD said in its decision that a product name generally will not be required to change without extrinsic evidence of consumer confusion or deception, unless the name expressly conveys a false message. NAD determined that “deep moisture” expressly communicates that the product provides a moisturization benefit.
In its advertiser statement included in the decision, Unilever said it is “pleased that NAD found all of the challenged claims that appear in advertising for Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash to be substantiated.”
NAB is a division of the non-profit BBB National Programs, which bills itself as “the home of U.S. independent industry self-regulation that has been helping enhance consumer trust in business for more than 50 years.”
