Foster Farms Referred to FTC for Refusal to Cooperate with Advertising Division of BBB

NAD REFERS FOSTER POULTRY FARMS TO FTC
Advertiser Declines to Participate in NAD Process

New York, NY – June 1, 2006 – The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has referred advertising for Foster Poultry Farms products to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), following the company's refusal to participate in the NAD process.

Advertising claims for Foster Poultry Farms, made in print media and featured on the Internet, were challenged by East Bay Animal Advocates ("EBAA") an animal advocacy organization and a consumer. Claims at issue
included:

• "Foster Farms is absolutely committed to the humane treatment of all animals."
• "Keeping the chickens comfortable, clean and well treated is a priority for Foster Farms and ensures excellent health and development."
• "Over the years, we have developed a comprehensive series of Animal Care Best Management Practices requiring humane production and processing practices for both chickens and turkey."
• "We remain committed to animal welfare. Foster Farms would like to assure consumers that its chickens are raised in large poultry barns (without cages) that allow the birds to move around."

Foster Farms noted at the outset that the issue of whether the poultry industry practices are "humane" is presently the subject of a lawsuit in California. The company contended NAD should decline to exercise jurisdiction because the dispute is not, at its core, an advertising dispute but rather an ethical dispute between an animal rights group and a poultry producer over what practices regarding animals are "humane."

"[C]omplaints regarding…questions of morality…are not with[in] the NAD/CARU mandate," the advertiser argued.

NAD, the advertising industry's self-regulatory forum, noted in its decision that the challenge centers on the interpretation and accuracy of objective statements made in advertising. "The truth and accuracy of such claims as well as issues concerning the interpretation of the statements by consumers are properly within the purview of the self-regulatory forum," the NAD decision states.

Further, NAD noted, the fact that a lawsuit may involve the same parties or the adjudication of related issues does not deprive NAD of its jurisdiction or its mandate to ensure the truth and accuracy of advertising.

Because the advertiser declined to participate in the self-regulatory process and elected not to provide a submission on the merits, NAD referred the matter to the FTC.


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NAD's inquiry was conducted under NAD/CARU/NARB Procedures for the Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the initial inquiry, NAD's decision, and the advertiser's response will be included in the next NAD Case Report.


The National Advertising Review Council (NARC) was formed in 1971 by the Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Inc. (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation, Inc. (AAF), and the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB). Its purpose is to foster truth and accuracy in national advertising through voluntary self-regulation. NARC is the body that establishes the policies and procedures for the CBBB's National Advertising Division (NAD) and Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), as well as for the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).

NAD and CARU are the investigative arms of the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation program. Their casework results from competitive challenges from other advertisers, and also from self-monitoring traditional and new media. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appeals body, is a peer group from which ad-hoc panels are selected to adjudicate those cases that are not resolved at the NAD/CARU level. This unique, self-regulatory system is funded entirely by the business community; CARU is financed by the children's advertising industry, while NAD/NARC/NARB's sole source of funding is derived from membership fees paid to the CBBB. For more information about advertising self regulation, please
visit http://www.narcpartners.org.