AD-ttorneys@law - August 29, 2017

SHARKNINJA SUCKS IT UP ON AD CLAIM CHALLENGE

Vacuum rival Dyson claims company's "preference" tags are full of hot air

The Competition Bristles

SharkNinja, manufacturer of the Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away vacuum, made some strong claims regarding the popularity of its product. In television ads and online, the company boasted that "America preferred ... Shark" and that "two out of three" people preferred their vacuum over Dyson's Cinetic vacuum.

Dyson challenged the claims before the National Advertising Division (NAD), which launched a self-regulatory proceeding.

Weak Claims

At the heart of Shark's preference claims was a national in-home use test that the company commissioned using third-party experts. Shark maintained that its performance claims "were supported by the results of [this] double-blind, multi-week, head-to-head, paired-preference study of 355 subjects at eight centers across the United States."