Colgate

A news story about something that has annoyed me for ages. Colgate have been advertising their toothpaste as "recommended by 8 out of 10 dentists" on a series of billboard posters. I often walk past one of these posters, and noticed that there was small print at the bottom of the picture saying "data on file". This really bugged me. What data? On file where? This sounds as though they're saying "This is all totally genuine, we're not just making it up", but "data on file" is not anything I can check to see if it's true. Anyway, there's a story on the BBC today that they have been forbidden from making this claim in future. It turns out that they conducted a phone survey, asking dentists what toothpaste they would recommend. Sure enough, 80% said they would recommend Colgate, BUT about the same number also recommended a rival toothpaste: they were not restricted to one choice of brand. In a fairly small market, it's pretty likely that if you ask someone to name several brands they would consider using, it wouldn't be surprising if they named one of the top brands in most cases. I think Colgate should be worried about the fact that even though they had plenty of opportunity, 20% of dentists wouldn't recommend Colgate at all!