NeatReceipts, Cardscan Participate in NAD forum

New York, NY – Nov.  6, 2008 – The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has recommended NeatReceipts, Inc., modify Internet advertising for the company’s Neat Business Cards Reader.

NAD, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum, examined advertising claims made by NeatReceipts following a challenge by the Office of Technology Products Group of Newell Rubbermaid Inc., maker of the CardScan business card reader.

At issue were performance and superiority claims made on the Internet and on product packaging, including: 

• “MOST ACCURATE.  The most accurate business card reader in the U.S. for business cards.”
• “For the top four fields, NEAT Business Cards had a 93% average accuracy rate which was 5% better than CardScan.”
• “NEAT Business Cards 2.1 was found to have 1.7 fewer errors than CardScan 8.0.”
• “CardScan had a 47% chance on each business card to have one of the big four incorrect, while NEAT Business Cards Reader had only a 27% chance to get one of these fields incorrect.”

As the challenger explained, the first component of a business card-reader system is the scanner, which optically scans paper or plastic business cards and converts the face of the card to a digital image. The second component converts the image to information to be logged into a database.  For example, common business-card abbreviations, such as “tele,” “t,” “phone,” are converted into “telephone” and the corresponding number is placed entered into a database.

NAD, following its review of the evidence, noted that it had several concerns with the test methodology relied upon by the advertiser and further determined the challenger’s testing was more extensive.  

During the course of the NAD review, the advertiser maintained that it had discontinued all of the challenged advertising with the exception of an Internet advertisement which depicted the product packaging, action NAD deemed necessary and appropriate. 

Because the totality of the evidence did not support the advertiser’s superior performance claims, NAD further recommended that the advertiser’s Internet advertising – depicting the earlier product packaging – be modified by discontinuing the claim that its Neat Business Card Reader is the “most accurate.”

In its advertiser’s statement, the company said disagreed with NAD’s decision, but asserted that it had discontinued its advertising claims before the final case decision.