A disagreement over sludge protection claims in Castrol GTX motor oil advertising led to a war of words between BPAmerica and Shell subsidiary Pennzoil-Quaker State, adjudicated by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
A self regulatory forum for the advertising industry, the NAD has recommended BP America modify or discontinue the disputed advertising claims for the companys Castrol GTX motor oil, following a challenge of the advertising by Pennzoil-Quaker State. BP America plans to appeal the organizations finding to a National Advertising Review Board panel.
Specifically, the NAD said BP America should discontinue claiming that its sludge protection is 57 percent better in television commercials. For Web site claims and technical bullets, the organization said BP America should either discontinue the 57 percent better claims or modify them to expressly limit the superiority claim to the motor oils performance in certain European Mercedes-Benz vehicles, as measured by the European automakers proprietary testing.
Pennzoil raised with the NAD its concerns about some very strong advertising superiority claims Castrol was making for its GTX Motor oil, based on proprietary testing utilized by Mercedes Benz for certain of its motor oil certifications, Luis Guimaraes, general manager for Shell Lubricants North America marketing, told Lube Report. Pennzoil is gratified that NAD agreed that the black box testing was not appropriate to support the broad superiority claims Castrol was making for the U.S. market.
Guimaraes said NAD has decades of experience reviewing and analyzing product claims. The process is relatively quick and inexpensive as compared to court, and Pennzoil believed, and still believes, that NAD was the appropriate forum to examine the competitive superiority claims Castrol makes in its GTX advertising, he said.
In its response to NAD, BP Lubricants said it disagreed with the organizations view that BP should modify its superiority claim to state that it reflects performance in European Mercedes vehicles, as measured by proprietary test protocols. The company argued that the test results are relevant for North American drivers. BP America said there are many similarities between the North American and European markets, and that European sludge standards are more demanding than North American standards.
Linda Bean, communications director for the National Advertising Review Council, said the National Advertising Review Boards appellate unit is made up of five people from the advertising industry, drawn from 70 NARB members. The party making the appeal makes its case at a hearing, and the NAD also has the opportunity to defend its position. Then the five member panel makes a decision, Bean added.