Skin-So-Soft IR3535 Insect Repellent Duration Claims "Deceptive" - Suit
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Advertising claims for Avon's Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus insect repellent are "materially false and deceptive," Off! Skintastic marketer S.C. Johnson alleges in an Aug. 6 counterclaim to the direct marketer's earlier lawsuit charging similar false advertising statements.
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Off! Skintastic
TV ads compare the S.C. Johnson insect repellent to Avon's Skin-So-Soft Sun Care Plus product. The spots, airing now, maintain Off!' s "gentle aloe formal feels pleasant like Avon Skin-So-Soft repellant but gives you 100% protection." The ads demonstrate Off!' s non-greasy formula by depicting a young boy wearing Skin-So-Soft being squirted through the arms of his aunt. In the past, Avon has charged S.C Johnson with making "misleading claims." The direct-marketer recently won a case against S.C. Johnson over ads that claimed Off! insect repellent was more effective than Skin-So-Soft Bath Oil ("The Rose Sheet" May 18, 1998, p. 6)
Avon Launches Skin-So-Soft Bug Repellent With IR3535 After EPA Approval
Avon Products is bringing the insect repellent ingredient IR3535 to the U.S. market in its newest Skin-So-Soft sunscreen product. Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 SPF 30 Moisturizing Sunblock Lotion is available now in time for the summer season through the company's representatives, catalog and Web site.
Insect repellent wars: Avon refutes OFF! DEET superiority claim over Skin-So-Soft.
S.C. JOHNSON OFF! DEET INSECT REPELLENT SUPERIORITY CLAIM "MISLEADING," AVON charged following Johnson's recent public relations campaign against the Skin-So-Soft marketer. Avon "strongly refutes" Johnson's contention that "nothing has been proven safer and more effective" than DEET (N,N-diethyl-m- toluamide) as an insect repellent, the company said. The firm claims its citronella oil (tropical grass) Skin-So-Soft line "can do the job safely and effectively, without potential side effects."