“Purebase” Found Misleading
The December, 2000, issue of Lubes-n-Greases Magazine reported that a U.S. District Court sided with Castrol Inc., ruling that Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. (“P-Q”) engaged in false and misleading advertising when it ran a multi-media campaign for Pennzoil Motor Oil with Purebase beginning in April. The ruling enjoined P-Q from continuing to run the ads. The ads, according to Lubes-n-Greases, “claimed that Pennzoil with Purebase was more pure than Castrol and other competing motor oils and protected engines better under severe driving conditions.”
The centerpiece television ad, featuring professional football star Bret Favre, suggests that viewers can “see the difference” by observing a sample of clear Pennzoil next to dirtier samples of other brands. A survey by Castrol indicated that many viewers concluded that the ads cite industry tests proving that Pennzoil with Purebase out-performed other brands in ways that would benefit motorists. According to Lubes-n-Greases, “the court called the campaign ‘repugnant’ to fair advertising rules of the Lanham Trademark Act; it ruled that Pennzoil did not pass tests that it claimed to pass, that the ads misstated the meaning of tests and that the Pennzoil product offered no better protection to motorists.”
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