Advertising Initiatives
Promoting truthful, transparent, responsible advertising through self-regulation, monitoring, and enforcement
Businesses that advertise and market their products and services need to commit to truthful and responsible advertising, allowing consumers to make informed choices and companies to build and nurture valuable consumer relationships.
To learn more about our work—and to join in the effort—please check out the programs, initiatives, and resources below.
Our Programs
Advertising Guidance
Since the creation of the National Advertising Division (NAD) in 1971, the advertising industry has supported high standards for truth and transparency through a comprehensive system of independent industry self-regulation programs.
Those programs enforce high standards of truth and accuracy in national advertising and ensure that advertising to children is not misleading or inappropriate. Beyond formal guidance, each of our case decisions contain real-world guidance on important advertising issues that attorneys can leverage for their clients and marketing professionals can follow to avoid advertising substantiation problems. Access summaries of all decisions in our Case Decision Summary library. Subscribe to the Online Archive for the full text of all decisions.
As the advertising landscape continues to evolve, we adapt our programs to the challenges posed by new products, new industries, and new advertising technology.
Truth in Advertising 101
Our educational resource library of tips, videos, and guidance shares advertising law basics, including defining common terms like ‘puffery,’ and how to draw the line between truthful and misleading advertising.
Endorsements & Testimonials
What is the proper way to use endorsements and testimonials in advertising, while staying truthful and out of the crosshairs of NAD and the FTC?
Puffery
Why don’t exaggerated or boasting claims made in advertising, known as puffery, require a reasonable basis of evidence?
Express and Implied Claims
What is the difference between an express or implied claim and does an advertiser need to have evidence to support both?
Process
Our advertising programs uphold standards for truthful and responsible advertising and responsible targeted advertising data collection practices through:
- independent monitoring;
- competitor challenges; and
- corporate commitments to voluntary standards.
Though competitor advertising challenges, business can play a significant role in building trust with consumers and supporting fair competition in the marketplace.
NAD Fast-Track SWIFT: The Process
NAD Standard Track SWIFT: The Process
NAD Complex Track: The Process
NAD Fast-Track SWIFT: The Process
Reports
The expansion of industry self-regulation programs across industries, most recently with the direct selling and dietary supplement industries, demonstrates how this voluntary system can be a proactive solution to emerging industry challenges.
Recent Case Decisions
Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council Recommends Zilis Discontinue Health-Related Product Performance Claims
McLean, VA – December 1, 2022 – The Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) recommended that health-related product performance claims made by Zilis salesforce members be discontinued.
National Advertising Division Finds Blue Apron’s “Canceling Meals is Easy” Claim Supported
New York, NY – December 1, 2022 – In a National Advertising Division (NAD) challenge, brought as part of NAD’s routine monitoring of national advertising for truth and transparency, NAD has determined that Blue Apron LLC provided a reasonable basis for the claim that “Canceling Meals is Easy.”
National Advertising Division Finds Certain Perrigo Infant Formula Cost Savings Claims Supported; Recommends Others be Modified or Discontinued
New York, NY – November 30, 2022 – The National Advertising Division (NAD) determined that Perrigo Company plc provided a reasonable basis for certain cost savings claims for its store brand hypoallergenic infant formula but recommended that other challenged claims be modified or...
National Advertising Division Refers Comparative Advertising Claims made by Zscaler to Federal Trade Commission for Further Review
New York, NY – November 30, 2022 – The National Advertising Division (NAD) referred Zscaler to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after the company failed to respond substantively to a challenge into claims made for its Zero Trust Exchange Platform. NAD recommended that Zscaler discontinue claims about...
BBB National Programs provides summaries of all case decisions in the Case Decision Summary library. For the full text of National Advertising Division, National Advertising Review Board, and Children’s Advertising Review Unit decisions, subscribe to the Online Archive. Other case decisions are available publicly: Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council and Digital Advertising Accountability Program. For members of the press, the full text of any BBB National Programs decision is available by emailing the request to press@bbbnp.org.
Filtered Case Feeds
Online Archive
Gain access to all BBB National Programs full legal decisions in the Online Archive, a unique and valuable resource that provides years of insightful guidance and in-depth knowledge on important advertising issues. Learn more about the Online Archive.
The full text of some case decisions are available publicly: Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council and Digital Advertising Accountability Program. For members of the press, the full text of any BBB National Programs decision is available by emailing the request to press@bbbnp.org.
Latest Announcements
Children’s Advertising Review Unit Issues Compliance Warning for Child-Directed Advertising in the Metaverse
McLean, VA – August 23, 2022 – BBB National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) today issued a new compliance warning regarding the application of CARU’s Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children’s Advertising to advertising practices directed to children in the metaverse. This warning puts advertisers on notice...
Media Advisory: Sesame Workshop’s Michael Preston and U.S. Representative Kathy Castor to Keynote CARU 2022 Annual Conference
McLean, VA – April 26, 2022 – The Children’s Advertising Review Unit of BBB National Programs will host the virtual CARU 2022 Annual Conference May 10-11, 2022, featuring keynote speakers who will address how to create a better digital world for children and what the U.S. policy landscape looks like for the year...
BBB National Programs Announces 85 Distinguished Panel Pool Members for National Advertising Review Board and New Vice Chair
McLean, VA – January 11, 2022 – BBB National Programs today announced the 85 panel pool members of the 2022 National Advertising Review Board, as well as its 2022 vice chair, Heather Hippsley, who retired in 2020 as Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where, among many senior roles over...
BBB National Programs Children’s Advertising Review Unit Begins Monitoring Child-Directed Content for Compliance with Revised Advertising Guidelines
McLean, VA – January 4, 2022 – BBB National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) begins monitoring child-directed advertising under the revised CARU Advertising Guidelines, widely recognized industry standards to assure that advertising directed to children is not deceptive,...
Resources
National Advertising Division FAQs
National Advertising Review Board FAQs
CFBAI Uniform Nutrition Criteria
Breaking Down Greenwashing in Advertising
The 4A’s resource, Greenwashing and Advertising: What Your Agency Needs to Know When Making Environmental Claims provides an outline of the rules around making environmental advertising claims and how the National Advertising Division (NAD) and others are helping to regulate them. In the past decade, NAD cases involving environmental claims in advertising have been on the rise. NAD vice president Laura Brett said “Once you see something become a priority for consumers, the response of course is for the industry to offer products that meet that demand, and I think that is why we have seen an increase in challenges to environmental claims, a high-profile issue that a lot of consumers are concerned about.”
Events
OECD Digital Economy Policy Ministerial Meeting
CLE International's IP & Ski Conference: Trademark, Copyright & Patent Law
Canadian Institute’s 29th Annual Advertising and Marketing Law Conference
ACI’s 6th Annual Forum on Advertising Claims Substantiation Workshop