Laws & Litigation

Staff -- JCK Online, 1/1/1995 2:00:00 AM

LEACH & GARNER AGREES TO ALTER GOLD ADS

Leach and Garner International, Providence, R.I., has agreed to more clearly state quality claims about its new Leach & Garner Gold made in print ads and during television shopping programs. The action follows complaints to the Better Business Bureau by two competitors.

The competitors - Dalow Industries, Long Island City, N.Y., and OroAmerica, Burbank, Cal. - cited print ads that tout the superiority of 14k Leach & Garner Gold regarding hardness, color, durability and shine. They also questioned more specific claims that president Ted Leach made about the company's Eterna Gold during a QVC television shopping network broadcast.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, New York, N.Y., investigated and said it could not substantiate Leach and Garner's claims. NAD recommended that Leach & Garner stress that the unique quality of its gold results from the combination of technical features, not the superiority of individual features. Specifically, the NAD report urges the company to "modify certain claims which do not make it clear that Leach & Garner Gold is not the hardest, nor the gold with the best color, but a unique combination which is not the hardest but among the hardest available and not the best or most natural color but among the best available."

Ted Leach says he is pleased with the report and describes it as "a vindication of all that we have done to make this a superior product." He says the report supports his company's claims regarding the superiority of a combination of features, specifically its high-hardness, highly desirable color, reversibility of hardness and fine grain structure.

Mark Hanna, president of Leach & Garner International, says future advertising will avoid any perceived "exaggerations" and will focus on new marketing opportunities for users of his company's gold.

NAD, in association with the National Advertising Review Board, is a self-regulatory program designed by advertisers and administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus