Plastic bag manufacturer GP Plastics Corp. has accepted advertising recommendations made in December by the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
GP of Dallas was appealing the recommendations, but it withdrew the appeal March 9, NAD spokeswoman Linda Bean said.
NAD had recommended that GP not claim its plastic bags are 100 percent oxo-biodegradable and to refrain from exaggerated claims, like calling the newspaper bags in question “the greatest thing ever to hit the Earth.”
Chief Executive Officer Mike Skinner said his firm was overexuberant in its advertising and that the appeal process GP originally had committed to promised to be a long one. “It looked like [the appeal] would go on a long time and it made no sense to continue,” Skinner said in a telephone interview.
He said GP stands by its product: “It's a great technology. We will continue to market it without so many adjectives.”
Rival newspaper bag producer Continental Products Inc. of Mexico, Mo., had challenged GP's claims, sparking the NAD probe.
NAD chided Continental in a March 9 news release, saying the firm violated NAD procedures that prohibit the use of NAD decisions for promotional purposes. NAD also alleged that Continental gave the information to a potential customer two business days ahead of NAD's news release.
Continental President Carl Fuemmeler said in a telephone interview that his firm received legal advice suggesting that it could publicize the NAD recommendations.
“We never intended to do anything not in accordance with [NAD's] regulations,” Fuemmeler said.
He expressed satisfaction that GP is adjusting its marketing message in line with NAD's guidance.
NAD is an investigator for the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation program. It relies on parties dealing fairly with each other to resolve disputes.