Practical Guide to Comparative Advertising: Dare to Compare

Practical Guide to Comparative Advertising: Dare to Compare is an authoritative, engaging handbook on comparative advertising for food and non-food consumer products. Claim substantiation is a common stakeholder interest among management, advertisers, lawyers and researchers. This handbook covers the corporate culture and strategic goals that encourage comparative advertising, laws and regulations, standards for research evidence, and examples that bring the concepts to life. Of particular value to corporate brand managers, the book includes a checklist of process steps and quality controls that allow managers to orchestrate comparative ad campaigns and manage the risk of complaints from indignant competitors.

• Alerts research, development and marketing professionals to potential competition issues and legal concerns
• Provides a reference source for courts of law with respect to accepted industry standards and practices
• Presents an authoritative perspective, in plain language, on laws and regulations governing comparative advertising, and on worldwide standards governing research evidence in support of advertising claims
• Covers food and beverage, nutritional supplements, cosmetics and other consumer advertised products

Dr. Ruth M. Corbin is Chair of forensic research firm CorbinPartners Inc., a corporate director, and Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Previously she has been Canadian President for Kroll Worldwide, CEO of Decision Resources Inc., Chief Operating Officer of the Angus Reid Group, and Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Business, She was named by the Globe and Mail and the Women’s Executive Network as one of Canada’s Top 100 women, in the category of Trailblazers and Trendsetters.

Ruth is co-author of two books on Intellectual Property measurement and protection, author of the Canadian Federal Court benchbook chapter on Surveys and other Marketplace Evidence, and author of a published series of educational articles called “Dare to Compare,” regarding the strategies, laws, and required evidence governing comparative advertising. She led a national team on behalf of Advertising Standards Canada to update standards for evidence in trade disputes, and led the initiative of the Market Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) to update Canada’s standards for social science research and to harmonize them with those of ESOMAR. Ruth is currently the chair of MRIA’s Dispute Resolution Committee, whose mandate includes bridging communications between the courts and experts about litigation standards for evidence and best practice standards in the research industry.

Rebecca N. Bleibaum, M.A., is President/Chief, Sensory Intelligence of Dragonfly SCI, Inc. a sensory and consumer insights research company in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in product testing and professional education. Bleibaum has over 25 years of experience in applied research from Tragon Corporation as their Chief Sensory Officer. She is co-developer and instructor of UC Davis Extension’s popular and long running “Applied Sensory & Consumer Science”. In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious UC Davis Extension Outstanding Service Award for her contributions and dedication to the University's continuing education program. (www.dragonflysci.net)

Bleibaum is co-author of Sensory Evaluation Practices, Fourth Edition (2012), A Practical Guide to Comparative Advertising: Dare-to-Compare (est. 2018), previous Chair of ASTM International, Committee E-18 on Sensory Evaluation, has received five ASTM awards for contributions and the Award of Merit, has spoken at numerous professional events, and had given hundreds of impactful client presentations over the years in wine, beer, and a wide variety of FMCG products. Bleibaum’s goal is to teach the fundamentals of sensory and consumer science to entrepreneurial spirited teams to help them become more successful in the marketplace.

Thomas Jirgal is a commercial litigator and trial attorney whose national practice focuses on intellectual property, advertising and general litigation matters. He co-chairs Loeb & Loeb's Advertising Disputes practice group.

Mr. Jirgal has nearly twenty years of experience representing clients in the entertainment, communications, food, and financial services industries in cases involving copyright, trademark, trade secret, corporate espionage, false advertising, contract, fiduciary duty, defamation, invasion of privacy, employment, civil forfeiture, antitrust and unfair competition claims. He regularly represents clients in state and federal court, in private arbitration and before the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division. He also counsels clients on advertising matters, including the substantiation needed for advertising claims, and the management, licensing and protection of intellectual property rights.

The advertising disputes in which Mr. Jirgal is involved often turn on cutting-edge technological issues, and the effective presentation of complex testing and statistical analysis. As an essential part of his practice, Mr. Jirgal also regularly oversees the design and critique of consumer perception surveys that can be dispositive in an advertising dispute involving implied claims.

David Mallen is partner and co-chair of advertising disputes at Loeb and Loeb LLP. He presently serves as Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s, Section on Antitrust Law, Advertising Disputes & Litigation Committee.

In his capacity at Loeb and Loeb, Mr. Mallen offers guidance to marketers from a variety of industries in connection with national advertising campaigns, analysis of claim substantiation issues, and resolution of advertising disputes. He has specialized experience in industry sectors of food and beverages, cosmetics, OTC drugs, telecommunication services, consumer household products dietary supplements, and information technology.

Mr. Mallen is a popular speaker at conferences and workshops on advertising claim substantiation, U.S. standards for industry self-regulation, advertising in social media, sustainability and green marketing, and scientific sensory testing. He is the co-author of the e-book How To Make Credible Green Marketing Claims. What Marketers Need to Know about The Updated FTC Green Guides.

Dr. Christine van Dongen is Associate Director of the Sensory and Consumer preference Group at R & D Minneapolis for Nestlé Health Science. Her academic training was in experimental psychology, philosophy of science, and human development. She has focused her career on measuring the human response to products, both food and non-food, for a range of companies. Her areas of focus are on delivering actionable research outputs to manage the risk in product innovation and renovation, developing new methods to measure sensory and hedonic responses to consumer products, statistics, research methods when humans provide the responses, and claims substantiation. Her almost 30-year career in consumer packaged goods companies is complemented by academic teaching. She has been active in professional organizations, including contribution to ASTM’s standards on claims substantiation.