Mead Johnson's Enfamil Advertising Referred to FTC Over Dubious Baby IQ Claims

(MoneyWatch) 

• UPDATE: Strike Five: Why Mead Johnson Keeps Airing Misleading Baby-Formula Ads

The National Advertising Division has asked the FTC to look into Mead Johnson Nutritionals' advertising of Enfamil infant formula. The NAD -- which functions as the advertising industry's internal police force -- has thrice asked Mead Johnson to stop making unsupported claims for Enfamil. Those claims include the notion that Enfamil improves eye development and IQ in babies.

It is unusual for a large corporate advertiser to decline to comply with NAD and risk FTC enforcement. (There is an understanding that NAD referrals go to the top of the FTC's in-box.) That kind of behavior is usually seen with the online diet pill hucksters that NAD occasionally deals with. NAD used unusually strong language in its ruling on Enfamil:

NAD is incredulous that after two compliance proceedings, with the second compliance proceeding making explicit that any noncompliant advertising would result in a referral to the appropriate government agency, that the advertiser would disseminate advertising that clearly does not comply with NAD's decision.

The NAD said this about Mead Johnson's advertising:

NAD recommended that the advertiser either discontinue its "improve brain and eye development" claims -- or modify them by making clear that (a) the advertised improvements are limited to only the first 18 months of an infant's life; and (b) the touted "improve[ment]" is with respect to a discontinued, or prior, version of the product.

NAD recommended that the advertiser discontinue side-by-side IQ graphs, and modify the materials to ensure that they no longer convey the unsupported message that Enfamil Lipil outperforms Similac with respect to the formulas' effects on IQ.

The referral is bad news for Mead Johnson as President Obama is poised to appoint FTC Commissioner Jon Liebowitz to chairman of the FTC. Leibowitz is regarded as more aggressive on enforcement than his predecessor. Ad Age:

As recently as last week, Mr. Leibowitz warned marketers that they need to do far more to limit behavioral marketing if they want to avoid government regulation. "Industry needs to do a better job of meaningful, rigorous self-regulation or it will certainly invite legislation by Congress and a more regulatory approach by our commission," he wrote in a concurring statement to an FTC behavioral-privacy report. "Put simply, this could be the last clear chance to show that self-regulation can ?€"- and will -- effectively protect consumer privacy in a dynamic online marketplace."

The NAD's referral thus offers Liebowitz an easy slow pitch that he can knock out of the park on his first day on the job.