If you thought Kodak’s ink claims were too good to be true, well, they are true. At least according to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
Apparently, Canon thought Kodak was (to put it diplomatically) exaggerating the extent of the cost savings associated with its inkjet printers. Kodak’s claim, for the record, was, “Save up to 50 percent on everything you print.”
NAD bills itself as “the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum.” So, they took a look and here’s what they concluded:
“Following its review of the evidence, including the results of testing conducted by a reputable third-party organization, NAD concluded that Kodak provided a reasonable basis for its ink cost-savings claim. Canon has indicated it intends to appeal that portion of the NAD’s decision finding that Kodak provided a reasonable basis for the ink cost-savings claim as it applied to the printing of color photographs.
However, NAD recommended that that Kodak modify the cost-savings claim as it appears on the front/back/top panels of its product packaging to clearly and conspicuously disclose on the same panel of the box as the claim appears that the touted savings refers to ink.”
Is it me, or are printer companies particularly touchy when it comes to competitive claims? Before this, I recall a few PMAs ago being subjected to a rather lengthy technical harangue about why Company X’s claim about “Y” was false. Then there was this brouhaha between Kodak and everyone else about inkjet longevity (a problem which has since been solved, more or less).
