New York, NY - March 6, 2003 - The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., the advertising industry's self-regulatory forum, recommended that Sidney Frank Importing Company, Inc., modify comparative and

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New York, NY - March 6, 2003 - The National
Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of
Better Business Bureaus, Inc., the advertising
industry's self-regulatory forum, recommended
that Sidney Frank Importing Company, Inc., modify
comparative and superiority advertising claims
for its product, Grey Goose Vodka. The truth and
accuracy of Grey Goose's advertising was brought
to the attention of the NAD by competing importer
and marketer of Belvedere Vodka, Millennium
Import Company.
SOURCE NAD press release
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NAD recognized Sidney Frank's right to advertise
its own commendable 1998 BTI rating, but
concluded that subsequent BTI testing indicated
that the advertised 1998 rating for competing
product Belvedere Vodka, was likely atypical and
unrepresentative of the quality of the competing
product and an inaccurate reflection of its more
current BTI rating. NAD, therefore, recommended
that the advertiser modify its advertising and
discontinue its comparative reference.
SOURCE NAD press release
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In a statement to NAD, Sidney Frank stated that
"It is pleased that NAD has found that the Grey
Goose advertisement of BTI's 1998 taste test
results is a literally accurate and truthful ad
" The advertiser, however, requested an appeal
to NARB for NAD's recommendation that it modify
its advertising, because it argued that BTI "
believes that there is nothing false or
misleading about the Grey Goose advertising" and
rejected the advertiser's requests to substitute
Belvedere's recent higher rating.
SOURCE NAD press release
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• NAD is the first-level which investigates the
  truthfulness and accuracy of a national ad.
• NARB (National Advertising Review Board) is the
  second part of the self-regulatory process.
• When an advertiser or challenger disagrees with
  NAD's findings, NAD's decision can be appealed to
  the NARB for additional review.

SOURCE NARC
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• The panel's recommendations are non-binding,
  however, in the spirit of self-regulation, almost
  all advertisers accept the NARB Panel's findings
  and recommendation.
• In the extremely rare instance of an
  advertiser's unwillingness to to accept the
  panel's recommendations, NAD/NARB Procedures call
  for a referral of the matter to an appropriate
  law-enforcement agency.

SOURCE NARC
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Lee Einsidler, executive vice president of sales
and marketing for Sidney Frank

• "Just because the NARB has made a
  determination, we're not bound to follow it.
• "We're following BTI guidelines that say no
  commingling, and the NARB is asking us to
  violate the BTI guidelines."
• if Belvedere is concerned about their new
  rankings, they should go advertise that."

SOURCE AdAge.com
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• Since Sidney Frank told the NARB that it has no
  intention of complying, the board referred the
  case to
• the Federal Trade Commission
• the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (a
  spinoff of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
  Firearms).

SOURCE AdAge.com
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• Millennium Import Co., importers of Belvedere
  vodka, filed a lawsuit on Aug. 28 against Sidney
  Frank Importing, which distributes Grey Goose
  vodka, for false advertising, consumer fraud and
  trade libel.

SOURCE AdAge.com
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Steve Gill, Millennium Import Co. president

• "We have been damaged by these deceptive and
  misleading ads because Sidney Frank has misled
  consumers into thinking Grey Goose is the
  best-tasting vodka in the world and Belvedere
  is an inferior vodka, which is not the case."
• "We intend to prove in a court of law that
  Sidney Frank has misled consumers ... and
  garnered revenue which has been gained based on
  deception."

SOURCE AdAge.com