The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has recommended that Unilever discontinue certain claims made in advertising and product demonstrations for its Dove Beauty Bar.

NAD examined claims made in print, broadcast and internet advertising following a challenge by Colgate-Palmolive. Colagte contended that Univer’s campaign creates the false and disparaging impression that competitive bar soaps not only do not clean the skin, but rather, leave an unacceptable and highly unpleasant “soap scum” residue.

In deciding this case, NAD had to balance an advertiser’s right to promote the benefits of its product against a competitor’s right not to have its product falsely disparaged. While NAD has long recognized an advertiser’s right to make literally truthful and accurate advertising claims sometimes at the expense of its competitors, at the same time, NAD strives to ensure that denigrating claims are truthful, accurate, narrowly drawn and that they do not falsely disparage a competitor’s product. In this case, the advertiser makes the highly impactful claim that “The Truth is Clear…Soap Leaves Soap Scum. Dove Doesn’t.”

Following its review of the evidence in the record, NAD concluded that the advertiser could support a more carefully and narrowly tailored claim that Dove Beauty Bar rinses cleaner than regular soap or leaves less soap behind.

However, NAD concluded that the evidence was insufficient to support the falsely disparaging message that “The truth is clear … Soap leaves soap scum. Dove Doesn’t,” and recommended that the advertiser discontinue the use of the references to the soap left behind by competing products as “soap scum.”

NAD further recommended that the advertiser discontinue both a “Mirror Demonstration” in the challenged television commercial and similar demonstrations in the Internet video featuring the scientist, demonstrations that NAD determined exaggerated the performance differences of the products.

Finally, NAD recommended that the advertiser discontinue an online “Soap Toss” game and consumer testimonials that reference soap “scum” or urge consumers to “throw away” their bar soap.

Unilever, in its advertiser’s statement, said: “we continue to believe that the phrase “soap scum” is an accurate way to describe the particular type of calcium-soap residue that soap leaves behind after washing in hard water” and “respectfully disagrees” that the advertising at issue is falsely disparaging to soap.

“Nevertheless, Unilever strongly supports the self-regulatory process and will take the NAD’s recommendations into consideration in future advertising for these products,” the company said.

In broadcast advertising, women lather and rinse mirrors, which then appear with visible soap residue as a voiceover states “Soap leaves soap scum … you can’t see it on your skin … but you can see it here.” The commercial then depicts a woman standing in front of a clean mirror as the voiceover states “Dove is different.” The visual then shifts to the image of a woman in a towel, caressing her skin and the voiceover states: “Skin is soft, smooth, soap-scum free.” The final screen shot features the Dove logo and the words “THE TRUTH IS CLEAR.”

The print advertisements feature the split-screen image of a woman behind a glass wall that is filmy on the left side and clear on the right side.

Internet advertising features a Dove scientist, who explains that soap scum is the combination of soap materials in a normal cleansing bar with the calcium ions in hard water and that, “[t]he two come together to form solids which deposits on skin and hair.” The scientist states that “[t]he cleansing system in a Dove bar is fundamentally different from soap in that it doesn’t interact with calcium in the same way that a regular bar soap does. Soap leaves scum and Dove doesn’t.” The scientist later explains that “the Dove tends to rinse much faster than the soap,” and says “between the combination of the mild and gentle cleansing system and the one-quarter moisturizing cream, Dove can help to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, it can improve skin’s texture and appearance, make the skin more radiant, and all of these are really factors of the fact that washing with Dove everyday leaves your skin in a healthier state.”

Testimonials included at the Website feature two women who reference soap scum and one who says she called her mother told her to “throw out” out her soap and use Dove.