Ithaca College

A 5-person panel of the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) determined that Guthy-Renker LLC has supported certain express performance and ingredient claims, before-and-after photo comparisons, an expert opinion, and a celebrity endorsement for its Crepe Erase® Anti-Aging Body Care Treatment System. The NARB panel also recommended that the advertiser make sure that all before-and-after photo comparisons illustrating the performance of Crepe Erase are accompanied by a clear and conspicuous disclosure indicating the duration of product use.

The advertising at issue had been reviewed as part of the National Advertising Division’s (“NAD”) routine monitoring program. NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation. Following NAD’s decision, Guthy-Renker appealed to the NARB, the appellate unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation.

With regard to the claim that “Crepe Erase is the leading anti-aging body care system clinically shown to reverse crepey-looking skin,” the NARB panel agreed with Guthy-Renker that in context the term “reverse” conveys the improvement, not elimination or near elimination – in the look of crepey skin, a message substantiated by the advertiser’s clinical study results.

Further, the NARB panel agreed with the advertiser that its before-and-after photo comparisons do not exaggerate the performance of Crepe Erase. The panel recommended, however, that the advertiser make sure that all before/after comparisons clearly and conspicuously disclose the length of time of use (e.g., “30-day results”), to provide consumers with relevant information to assess the significance of the comparisons being depicted.

The NARB panel also determined that quantified percentage claims based on clinical expert grading are supported: “After 4 weeks – 90% of users showed improvement in skin firmness on arms” and “After 8 weeks – 95% of users experienced a lifted appearance of skin.”

With regard to the claim that Crepe Erase can “transform your dry, crepey winter skin into softer, smoother, younger-looking skin all year round,” the NARB panel determined that this claim is supported based on the fact that Crepe Erase has been shown to work all year regardless of season.

The NARB panel concluded that, overall, the advertiser presented a record demonstrating that it possessed proper and reasonable support for its ingredient claims that Crepe Erase “contains 3 powerful phytonutrients – apple, dill and sage, clinically shown to combat weakened, crepey skin, revealing a smoother, tighter, more youthful-looking texture,”

The panel also sustained the advertiser’s appeal with respect to the expert opinion of Dr. Andrew Ordon, finding that Dr. Ordon’s opinion that Crepe Erase is “the only system that I recommend to my patients to reverse the signs of skin aging” is properly supported.

Finally, with respect to the celebrity endorsement of Dorothy Hamill stating that, at the age of 61, having used Crepe Erase for two years, “I really don’t see any crepey skin,” the panel agreed with the advertiser that, in context, the statement only expresses Ms. Hamill’s personal satisfaction with the product, not that use of Crepe Erase will result in the elimination of crepey skin.

Guthy-Renker stated that it “is pleased to accept the NARB’s decision sustaining its appeal” and that it “will comply with the panel’s recommendation to make sure to label all before-and-after photos illustrating the performance of Crepe Erase

NARB is the appellate unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation and administered by the Better Business Bureau National Programs. NARB Panel #259 members were Panel Chair Scott Hamula, Associate Professor, Ithaca College, Dave Fitzgerald, Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Fitzgerald & Company, Maya Battle, Assistant Director, Digital Campaigns & Media Planning, Penguin Random House, Dave Berlin, Director, Digital Business Development, BP Castrol, and Dan Fromm, President / COO, Barkley.

You can view the commercial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNlSK_kRoSs