The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) and the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) will be extending the dietary supplement advertising review program established in 2006 for an additional five years.

Under the extension agreement, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) will receive $959,000 from the newly-formed 501(c)(3) CRN Foundation, payable in incremental, semi-annual grants, beginning November 1, 2009 through October 31, 2014.

“Responsible industries take actions that demonstrate their commitment to protecting their consumers, and this self-regulatory program says to all companies that this industry won’t sit back and let misleading advertising serve as a hallmark for which our industry is known. In the three years this program has been in existence, it has gained momentum and widespread attention, becoming an example of responsibility for our industry,” said CRN Foundation executive director Steve Mister. “This initiative reflects one of the CRN Foundation’s objectives—‘to promote truthful and non-misleading advertising of dietary supplements to consumers through programs that encourage self-regulation of advertising by industry members’.”

“Misleading dietary supplement advertising negatively impacts trusting consumers and honest competitors alike. Left unchecked, misleading advertising will undermine the reputation of the entire industry,” said Andrea Levine, NAD director and CBBB senior vice president. “With CRN’s support, we have demonstrated that self-regulation can play an active and visible role in combating misleading and unsubstantiated dietary supplement claims, but there is still significant work left to be done. We look forward to continuing our program and are confident that it will make a real difference. CRN is to be commended for its leadership for supporting this strong, impartial self-regulatory program.”

The CRN/NAD initiative, which began in 2006, was developed to increase consumer confidence in the truth and accuracy of advertising claims for dietary supplement products and to encourage fair competition within the industry. Through a series of multi-year grants from CRN, the initiative allowed NAD to hire an additional attorney who focused solely on the dietary supplement product category. The initiative has taken aim at substantive claims that are deceptive or misleading and clearly go beyond what’s supported by research and allowed by law—claims that feed the public’s distrust of the supplement industry. NAD reviews advertising that is national in scope, including print, broadcast, infomercials and Internet advertising. NAD opens cases following complaints from consumers, competitors and pursuant to its own monitoring.