The Council for Responsible Nutrition Foundation (CRNF) paid tribute during its annual conference in California to the ten-year anniversary of its partnership with the National Advertising Division (NAD) on a self-regulatory advertising monitoring program that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called “an excellent example of self-regulation.” The program executed by the NAD, a service of the advertising industry administered through the Council of Better Bureaus (CBBB), monitors, reviews and challenges dietary supplement advertisements to ensure that ads are truthful and non-misleading. To date, NAD has completed over 250 challenges.
 
Steve Mister, president and CEO, CRN, commented, “I’m very proud of CRN’s members that 10 years ago they took what I think was a brave decision to put a stake in the ground and say we’re going to do something about misleading advertising.”
 
CRNF has provided grants through 2017, totaling more than $2.1 million since the program’s inception in 2016.
 
In June 2016 at the CRN/ACI Fourth Annual Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements, the FTC issued a statement from FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez stating, “The CRN/NAD initiative shows just how impactful meaningful self-regulation can be…the program has been a valuable complement to the FTC’s own enforcement efforts to eliminate fraud in this industry.”
 
At the program’s launch in 2006, CRN urged the dietary supplement industry to police the advertising marketplace through an industry campaign headlined “There’s a new sheriff in town. You!” CRN recently unveiled a new promotional campaign geared to the industry in support of the program. The new ads replace the sheriff with a super hero and urge the industry to “protect our consumers” [from misleading advertising] with the headline “Stand Up for Truth in Advertising” and tagged “We’re making the future of advertising safer.”
 
C. Lee Peeler, president and CEO of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, which sets the policies and procedures for NAD, and EVP, CBBB, summed up the importance of the program, “Self-regulation is good for consumers, it’s good for honest competitors, and it’s good for the industry to promote its reputation for truthfulness.”
 
More information on the history of the CRN/NAD program is available in a newly released Program Milestones backgrounder. To learn how to file a competitive claim or use a free tool that assists dietary supplement companies in avoiding misleading, non-substantiated or deceptive advertising claims, visit CRN’s website.