National Advertising Division Recommends BA Sports Nutrition Discontinue Its “The Rehydration Champ is Here” Claim
New York, NY – February 1, 2024 – BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division recommended that BA Sports Nutrition, LLC (BA) discontinue the claim “The Rehydration Champ is Here” for its BodyArmor Flash I.V. Sports Drink.
The claim at issue, which appeared on the BodyArmor Flash I.V. Sports Drink webpage and in social media advertising, was challenged by competitor Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. (SVC). BA recently introduced its Flash I.V. Sports Drink to the marketplace in the new “rapid rehydration” category.
At issue was whether BA’s “The Rehydration Champ is Here” claim conveys a comparative superiority message or is merely puffery. The National Advertising Division (NAD) concluded that one message reasonably conveyed is that Flash I.V. Sports Drink is the best on the market for rehydration, a claim that requires substantiation.
NAD noted that the quantity of electrolytes in a sports drink is not itself substantiation for a claim of superior rehydration. Although Flash I.V. has more electrolytes than Gatorlyte, in the absence of any comparative product or performance testing in the record on the rehydration benefit of Flash I.V. as compared to Gatorlyte or other competing sports drinks, NAD determined that BA’s “The Rehydration Champ is Here” claim was not supported.
Therefore, NAD recommended that BA discontinue its claim noting that nothing in its decision precludes BA from making properly supported ingredient claims for Flash I.V., or truthful and not misleading claims about the relative electrolyte content of its products and competing products.
In its advertiser statement, BA stated that it “disagrees with NAD’s conclusion but agrees to comply with the recommendation to stop using the ‘Rehydration Champ is Here’ claim, which was used specifically to advertise the launch of BODYARMOR Flash I.V. in 2023, and has already run its course.”
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