Did The Clorox Company go too far when it claimed its new "Green Works cleaning products work just as well as traditional cleaners"? S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. thought so, and recently challenged that claim and others appearing in Clorox Green Works advertising materials and on product labels, prompting an inquiry by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The claims in question included:

• Green Works cleaning products work just as well as traditional cleaners...
• Green Works All-Purpose Cleaner cuts through this greasy mess as well as the leading spray cleaner...
• Green Works cleaning products "work as well as conventional cleaners...

After investigating the complaint, which included reviewing Clorox Green Works performance test results, the NAD recommended that some of the ads be discontinued or modified.

In particular, the NAD found that Clorox should clarify in its advertising that Green Works products work as well as traditional cleaners, but only when it comes to most soils. Otherwise, the ads could imply the products work as well at killing germs as cleaners that contain disinfectants or as well as leading competitors on the toughest grease stains (as shown in a Clorox TV commercial featuring a side-by-side comparison of Green Works vs. a "Leading All-Purpose Cleaner." )   

In response, Clorox stated that it "strongly disagrees with NAD's finding"—that its advertising materials imply Green Works products clean as well as disinfectants but agreed to modify its general claims to be specific. It said it will also consider modifying its side-by-side demonstration in future TV ads.—Kristi Weidemann

Essential information: Find exactly how Green Works and many other leading brands of bathroom cleaners stacked up each other in a recent Consumer Reports test (full report available to subscribers). And don't miss an earlier look at the trend toward green cleaning products.