NAD Finds SPI Violated NAD Procedures that Prohibit Use of Decisions for Promotional Purposes

New York, NY – Aug. 4, 2016 – The National Advertising Division has determined that Strategic Partners, Inc. (SPI), a maker of hospital scrubs and other garments, violated the procedures that govern the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation by directly promoting  the outcome of  an advertising challenge case decided by NAD.

Self-regulation is a voluntary process. NAD procedures make clear that parties to an NAD case are prohibited from using NAD decisions for promotional purposes. Participating companies agree at the outset to abide by that rule and parties are reminded of the prohibition when a case is closed. The prohibition was put in place to encourage voluntary participation and to better assure NAD decisions are not used by parties either to promote their own products or implicitly criticize competitors.

Effective self-regulation requires that participants adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the self-regulatory system.

In the underlying case, SPI had challenged certain advertising claims made by Vestagen, a competing maker of hospital scrubs.