NAD: Bayer Healthcare ad claims for Aleve are supported

NEW YORK The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus on Thursday determined that Bayer Healthcare can substantiate claims made in packaging, television, print and Internet advertising for Aleve and Aleve Liquid Gels products.

Claims at issue included:

• “minimum daily dosing” and “minimum label dosing”;
• “all day pain-free movement” and “stop pain all day”; and
• “Only two Aleve can stop pain all day” and “that would take twice as many Advil.”

NAD, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum, reviewed the claims at issue, following a challenge by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, manufacturer of Advil, a competing analgesic.

Wyeth also challenged a pill-count comparison graph that two Aleve caplets stacked next to four Advil caplets, with the claim “Just 2 Aleve = 4 Advil.”

 NAD noted in its decision that Bayer has, since at least 2002, made a pill-count comparison in its advertising, including the recent claim that two Aleve capsules equal four Advil capsules. The advertiser maintained, and NAD accepted, that the pill count comparison is based on the respective FDA-approved labels for Aleve and Advil.

Consistent with past decisions, NAD accepted product labels, approved by the Food and Drug Administration as reasonable support for the durational capacity of Aleve and Advil.

NAD determined that the advertiser provided a reasonable basis for its "pain-free" claim, based on its FDA-approved label. Further, NAD determined that it was unlikely that consumers who use over-the-counter analgesics would expect to experience a complete absence of any pain.  The NAD also found that the advertiser established a reasonable basis for its value calculator, based on a minimum daily dose of two Aleve pills versus four Advil tablets.