New York, NY-April 15, 2004 - The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) is pleased to announce that The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) has cooperated with CARU in connection with a commercial promoting Pringles. The spot, which aired during children's programming on several different networks, raised concerns under CARU's Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (Guidelines).

The section of the Guidelines entitled "Product Presentations and Claims" states, in part:

"7. The amount of product featured should be within reasonable levels for the situation depicted.

8. Representation of food products should be made so as to encourage sound use of the product with a view toward healthy development of the child and development of good nutritional practices…"

The commercial, entitled "Pop Music," featured four young friends, in their late teens or early twenties, and used a series of quick cuts in the style of a music video. Overall, in CARU's opinion, it appeared that the friends were eating out of multiple containers of Pringles, even when the four were shown sitting together in partial group shots. CARU found that one 6-serving sized container of Original Pringles-the only size and flavor featured in the commercial-should be sufficient for four friends to share when they get together. By conveying the impression that the four are not sharing out of a single 6-serving container when they are shown together eating Pringles, the spot could be viewed as encouraging excessive consumption of a snack food.

P&G asserted that the commercial, in part, was designed to show young people creating music with the Pringles can and that the can was meant to be shown as a fun object apart from the snack. P&G also believed that consumption was not the major focus of the advertising and that the consumption depicted was done so in a reasonable manner. P&G asserted that the total number of crisps eaten during the spot was well below one serving size and the crisps were eaten one at a time. It also stated that it did not intend, and did not believe, that there was any reason not to assume that the open can was being shared among the group while the instrumental cans were unopened or empty.

While P&G disagreed with CARU's position on the overall impression created by the subject advertising, it nevertheless agreed not to continue running the spot during children's programming and to take CARU's concerns into consideration in the development of future advertising.

CARU's inquiry was conducted under NAD/NARB/CARU Procedures for Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the inquiry, CARU's decision and the advertiser's response will be included in the next NAD/CARU Case Report.

Members of the press who wish to see a copy of the decision now should email CARU.

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The National Advertising Review Council (NARC) was formed in 1971 by the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Inc. (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation, Inc. (AAF), and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB). Its purpose is to foster truth and accuracy in national advertising through voluntary self-regulation. NARC is the body that establishes the policies and procedures for the CBBB's National Advertising Division (NAD), the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).

NAD and CARU are the investigative arms of the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation program. Their casework results from competitive challenges from other advertisers, and also from self-monitoring traditional and new media, including the Internet. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appeals body, is a peer group from which ad-hoc panels are selected to adjudicate those cases that are not resolved at the NAD/CARU level. This unique, self-regulatory system is funded entirely by the business community; CARU is financed by the children's advertising industry, while NAD/NARB's sole source of funding is derived from membership fees paid to the Council of Better Business Bureaus.