Glaxo Smith Kline Participates In ERSP Forum

New York,NY– August 14, 2007 – The Electronic Retailing Self -Regulation Program (ERSP) has determined   that  GlaxoSmithKline   Consumer  Healthcare   (GSK)  was  unable  to  support  an exclusivity claim for the Beano supplement. The marketer’s advertising was brought to ERSP’s attention by an anonymous consumer inquiry.

ERSP,  the  electronic  direct-response  industry’s  self-regulatory  forum,  is administered  by  the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) with policy oversight by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC).

ERSP reviewed the following core claim:

• “The only product available that can help prevent gas.”

During  the  course  of  the  review,  it  came  to  ERSP’s  attention  that  the  marketer  stopped disseminating the claim on its Website but that the marketer reserved the right to make the claim in future advertising. Based on this representation ERSP continued with its analysis.

ERSP  noted  that  the  inquiry  was not predicated  on the unique  efficacy  of the product or the adequacy  of the  description  of its mechanism  of action.  ERSP  determined  that  supporting  an express  exclusivity  claim  based  on the criteria  of  availability  is  not  overly  demanding  of  a marketer  and  differentiated  the  necessary  support  from  a  claim  of  superiority  which  would require a marketer  to test a significant  market share to support its claim.  Accordingly, ERSP’s review was limited to the exclusivity claim on the Beano website.

ERSP determined that the marketer did not support the exclusivity claim due to the presence of competitive products available to consumers in the marketplace.

The  company,  in  its  marketer  statement,  said  that  “GlaxoSmithKline   Consumer  Healthcare (GSK)  respectfully   disagrees  with  ERSP’s  conclusion  regarding  the  single  claim  at  issue. However, GSK agrees to take ERSP’s views into account and will qualify the