NAD recently issued a decision in a challenge that Zillow
brought against Apartments.com involving a humorous campaign that
featured Jeff Goldblum. The decision covers a lot of ground,
including some issues that may be unique to the rental market. For
today, though, we'll focus on an issue that spans industries
and comes up frequently. Specifically, we'll look at
popularity claims, such as the advertiser's “The Most
Popular Place to Find a Place” tagline and a couple of
“#1” claims.
NAD noted that “most popular” and “number
1” claims send a powerful message that a brand is preferred
over all other brands. Because these messages can factor heavily in
consumer purchasing decisions, NAD scrutinizes them carefully to
determine whether the evidence fits the claim. In most cases, the
best evidence to support these claims is sales data. That
wasn't available in this case because rentals take place off
the parties' sites. Instead, the parties each presented data
on website
