NAD recommends Benefit Cosmetics to cease advertising claims of its mascara

The National Advertising Division (NAD) has urged Benefit Cosmetics to stop claiming They’re Real! is the best-selling prestige mascara in the US. 

Administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, NAD is an investigative unit of the country’s advertising industry.

Too Faced Cosmetics, which retails Better Than Sex (BTS) mascara, challenged the claims made by Benefit Cosmetics in online and point of sale advertising of the mascara.

According to Too Faced, claims by Benefit have become outdated and its BTS has outperformed They’re Real! in both units and dollars.

In response, Benefit Cosmetics said that when viewed as a whole, the advertising refers to only past achievements as the disclosures limit the claims to the stated time periods.

After review of makeup dollar sales data for the period July 2015 to June 2016, NAD claimed that the claims during the advertising were not clear and conspicuous, and remain problematic.

Sales data was obtained from US Prestige Beauty Total Department Specialty of NPD Group.

As the disclosures should not contradict or materially change the intended message by an advertising claim, NAD recommended Benefit to withdraw its claims regarding they’re Real!

The investigative unit further added that Benefit’s disclosure was insufficient to support its claims but is not misleading.

Benefit Cosmetics said: "Notwithstanding the company’s disagreement with the NAD’s decision, the company agrees to comply with the NAD’s recommendation and discontinue use of the advertising materials containing the claims."