BBB National Programs Blog

Today, businesses’ strategies and tactics to prove they are good corporate citizens go beyond the environment to include social and governance practices, otherwise known as ESG. Though consumers rely on businesses for information about their current corporate environmental efforts and their approaches to social and governance issues, ESG messaging is not something that consumers can easily confirm for themselves. A widespread commitment to accountability in ESG messaging to consumers would be an outstanding complement to the work that is already being done in communicating ESG policies to investors.

Advertisements may seem simple on the surface, but certain aspects of the ad business, including advertising law, are complex. The role of monitoring ads directed to children is especially complex. It seems straightforward: advertisers are not allowed to lie in their advertisements, but an advertiser is also responsible for all reasonable interpretations of the claims it makes and not just the messages it intended to convey. This blog outlines how to make sure your advertising passes the truthfulness test.

Privacy policies are complicated and can be frustrating to read, especially when you are trying to learn about your child's data privacy online. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) reviews child-directed online environments to ensure that children’s data is collected and handled responsibly. As a parent, follow these steps to take a proactive role in your child’s data privacy, using privacy policies as your guide to better understand an online service’s data collection practices.

Advertising is a cutting-edge industry, so it is no surprise that the ad business has been at the forefront of a global trend building for almost 60 years – independent industry self-regulation. In the U.S., the National Advertising Division is the industry’s widely recognized “truth-in-advertising” body, an independent third party that enables competitors to resolve disputes outside the courtroom. It is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) of the U.S. In this Q&A with Mary Engle, Executive Vice President, Policy, here at BBB National Programs, we dig into what industry self-regulation looks like in other parts of the world.

Substantiating advertising claims is important, both to comply with the law and to avoid regulatory scrutiny or a potential challenge from a competitor in court or in a proceeding before the National Advertising Division (NAD).

Although businesses can advertise the benefits of their products, all messages conveyed by the advertising must be supported by a reasonable basis. Failure to adequately support a health or wellness claim can quickly get a business into trouble.

The recently updated 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) ask us to “make every bite count.” This is an important message in a year when parents have faced challenges on so many fronts, including cooking for their families and eating at home more often than pre-pandemic. For parents feeding very young children, timely guidance in the form of the latest edition of the DGAs arrived at the end of 2020 when, for the first time, they addressed the diets of infants and toddlers.

Nonprofit organizations are often viewed as fundamentally different than for-profit enterprises, but those of us known as “bridgers” see striking similarities, albeit through a professional bifocal lens. We bridgers have transitioned in our careers from publicly traded or privately owned for-profit enterprises to nonprofit organizations, often with a goal to grow these nonprofits in pursuit of their missions. Our insights from both sides of “the bridge” provide us a dual perspective, where we can see that the needs, limitations and goals of for-profits and nonprofits are closer than they may seem at first glance.

In class action settlements, the cy pres doctrine allows for the distribution of unclaimed settlement funds to non-profit organizations that indirectly benefit the injured class. NAD fulfills its consumer protection mission through its own robust independent monitoring and investigation of misleading advertising in the marketplace.

Though the food advertising world has changed in many ways, health claims continue to play a role in food advertising and present challenges. Today’s food and beverage purchase decisions are influenced by far more than price, taste, familiarity, and brand loyalty.