ERSP Reviews Claims For Media Dime Marketing’s “Cheap Gas” Automobile Device

New York, NY – July 14, 2008 – The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) has recommended that Media Dime Marketing, LLC, discontinue performance and establishment claims for the Cheap Gas Automobile Device. The marketer’s advertising came to ERSP’s attention pursuant to a consumer complaint.

Claims at issue in the ERSP inquiry included:

• “Gasoline will always be so cheap that it will seem as if priced the same as three years ago.”
• “The strongest and most effective gasoline economizer device”
• “You can now drive more miles without adding more gasoline”
• “Scientific studies conducted around the world have shown that by using Cheap Gas you will be able to save up to 27% on gasoline, reduce toxic emissions by 90%, increase the power of the vehicle’s motor, and prolong the useful life of the motor by 30%.”
• “Studies conducted by the Department of Environmental Engineering of California concluded that, by using Cheap Gas, toxic emissions are reduced by 90%”

The advertising at issue depicts the placement of the product, a small plastic object, onto the automobile’s fuel line. The claims at issue suggest that by installing the product, an automobile will experience substantial gasoline efficiency improvements.

ERSP determined that the marketer did not provide any substantive evidence to support the performance and establishment claims disseminated in its advertising. As a result, ERSP recommended the marketer discontinue any and all claims in advertising for the product until such time it can produce reliable substantiating data.

The company, in its marketer’s statement, said it has taken ERSP’s “recommendations into careful consideration and [is] in the process of producing a new commercial. We are very grateful for agencies like you that make such recommendations and help us improve the way we do business.”