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For
immediate release:
Scott
Paper Files Claim Against Procter & Gamble For Misleading Consumers in Paper
Towel Advertising Superiority
of Scott Towels Ultra Unfairly Ignored in Bounty Commercials TORONTO,
Ontario, (November 7, 1995) -- Scott Paper Limited today filed a statement of
claim in the Federal Court of Canada outlining its case against Procter &
Gamble for misleading consumers and retailers about the performance of P &
G's Bounty paper towels relative to other paper towel products including Scott's
premium quality Scottowels Ultra. The
suit contends that the heavily televised Procter & Gamble campaign featuring
product spokesperson "Rosie" is materially misleading in several ways.
Among the misleading information used in the advertisements, derived from a
long-running U.S. campaign, are: ·
Bounty, a higher grade product, is compared to ordinary paper towels
having lower absorbency rates rather than to other premium products such as
Scottowels Ultra ·
Bounty's individual sheet size is 11 inches versus the nine inch size of
ordinary towels; the larger sheet size is the primay reason for
"better" absorbency ·
"Quicker Picker Upper" -- Bounty's tag line -- is meaningless
because there is no industry agreement on a standardized measure of product
efficacy ·
The Canadian version of Bounty is significantly different than the
American product, primarily in its lower absorbency "We
have little choice but to file this claim," said Neil Palmer, Vice
President, Corporate Marketing, Scott Paper Limited. "We have asked Procter
& Gamble, through a number of less adversarial means, including face-to-face
meetings and a voluntary hearing before the Canadian Advertising Foundation, to
review and correct their misleading advertisements, but they have refused to act
responsibly as yet." At
the heart of Scott Paper's suit is Procter & Gamble's misleading
representation, found in Bounty advertisements, that "Paper towels are all
the same." In
fact, there are substantial quality and pricing differences between various
paper towel products. Although there is no industry consensus regarding measures
of product quality, one commonly used yardstick of relative absorption is Total
Wet Absorbency rate (TWA). Scottowels Ultra has a 320 rating, Bounty a 205 and
most ordinary towels, 160. Scott
Paper maintains that Procter & Gamble was aware of the presence of Scott
Paper's higher TWA product. Scott introduced Scottowels Ultra to the Canadian
marketplace in September 1994 and supported the product with approximately $3
million in promotional activity. All Scottowels are manufactured in Canada. Conversely,
Procter & Gamble's Bounty was distributed nationally to Canadians beginning
in January of 1995. Bounty's introduction was heavily promoted to consumers
through a variety of means including television advertising, print material,
in-store demonstrations and product sampling. Instead
of making the fairer comparison between two premium products, both launched
within the same relative time frame, Procter & Gamble's "Rosie"
commercials compared Bounty in side-by-side demonstrations with "the
leading brand". Scottowels is Canada's leading paper towel brand. Scott
contends that the general impression of the advertisements is that, when tested
against comparably sized sheets of the market leader, Bounty absorbs
substantially more liquid. This is a false comparison because Scottowels has
9-inch sheets versus Bounty's 11-inch size. In
one presentation to retailers, for example, Procter & Gamble claimed that
Bounty was 21 per cent more absorbent than
Scottowels without disclosing the 22 per cent difference in sheet length.
Moreover, because 97 per cent of the paper towelling sold in Canada is the
nine-inch format, P & G makes an almost universally unfair comparison. During
in-store demonstrations across Canada, Procter & Gamble compared three
sheets of Bounty to three sheets of "a national leading brand" by
dipping both products separately into equal volumes of coloured water. The
different sheet sizes were not disclosed to on-lookers. In addition, the more
fair comparison to Scottowels Ultra was never made. "Fundamentally,
we believe that consumers must make their own choices," explained Mr.
Palmer. "Scott Paper also believes that those choices should be made with
complete and reliable information. Unfortunately, Procter & Gamble appears
not to be telling the whole story and
we think these omissions are unfair to consumers, retailers and competitors such
as Scott Paper." Scott Paper is seeking a permanent injunction against Procter & Gamble preventing P&G from using the slogan "The Quicker Picker Upper" in association with Bounty, as well as preventing P & G from making unfair side-by-side products of unequal products. In addition Scott Paper is seeking: ·
an injunction against claims or general impressions that Canadian
Bounty is the same as the U.S. product; ·
a prohibition of misleading statements of absorption capacity or speed of
Bounty products; ·
a ban on publishing or distributing misleading promotional literature ·
General damages equal to the profits earned by Procter & Gamble from
the use of Bounty advertising ·
Special, punitive and exemplary damages totalling $1,000,000 Scott Paper is Canada's leading manufacturer and distributor of paper towel products. Established in Canada in 1937. -30- For Information: Sean
McPhee
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