ERSP Recommends Square One Entertainment Modify Certain Claims for ‘Invinceable’ Stain Remover

New York,  NY – Sept. 3,  2015 – The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) has determined that Square One Entertainment, Inc. can support general performance claims for Invinceable, a stain remover. However, ERSP recommended that the marketer modify its demonstrations to reflect product performance and third-party testing.

ERSP is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation and is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The marketer’s advertising came to the attention of ERSP pursuant to its ongoing monitoring program.

ERSP reviewed broadcast and online advertising claims for Invinceable, including:

• “Penetrates stains fast and blasts them away”
• “No harsh chemicals or bleach”
• “Invinceable will remove virtually any stain on any hard surface and even on your softest fabrics.”

As support for the performance and establishment claims at issue, the marketer provided ERSP with third-party, independent testing on the product’s efficacy on a variety of representative stains and surfaces.

ERSP noted in its decision that the marketer provided a reasonable basis for claims that Invinceable “Penetrates” and/or “removes stains fast.”

However, ERSP expressed its concern about the accuracy of the product demonstrations in the broadcast advertising and the depiction of results consumers can generally expect to achieve from using the product.

Going forward, ERSP said, supporting the claims that Invinceable will “…remove virtually any stain on any hard surface and even on your softest fabrics” and “…it’ll work on all of your difficult to clean soft or hard surfaces,” would require testing on a greater representative sample of stains than those evaluated in the materials provided to ERSP.

Further, should the marketer use the same or similar demonstrations in future advertising, ERSP recommended that the type of stain removal depicted in the commercial must be consistent with the stain that used in testing and any time lapse or speed effect used in the demonstrations should be disclosed.

Finally, ERSP recommended that the demonstrations be modified to show the actual number of applications of Invinceable required to remove particular stain as depicted in the advertising.

The company, in its marketer’s statement, said, “Square One Entertainment, Inc., has no plans to run the same commercial that was the subject of the ERSP inquiry in the future, however, in the event that it resumes television advertising it will revise the commercial taking into account ERSP’s recommendations.”