Wonder Whether a Product Is Any Good? See if Mrs. America Likes It

The Mrs. America Pageant, which maintains its headquarters in Santa Monica, is launching a testing program for products and services, conducted by winners of the Mrs. America state and national pageants, “to improve the quality and marketability of U.S. goods and services.”

“We feel there is no more qualified group to test products in their own homes than our network of Mrs. America families,” which numbers about 500 now that the pageant is in its 10th year, said David Z. Marmel, president of the Mrs. America Pageant.

The Mrs. America “certificate of approval” will be awarded only if a product or service receives the approval of “the vast majority” of testers surveyed.

The testing families are “a rather diverse cast of personnel and characteristics representing a total national mix from a geographic standpoint (and) all age groups,” Marmel said.

The Mrs. America certificate will not include a guarantee of replacement or refund for defective merchandise like the one promised by Good Housekeeping magazine’s “seal of approval.”

Good Housekeeping tests products in its laboratories.

“We’re not guaranteeing anything except the product works for the women in our system who test it in their homes,” Marmel said.

The certificate will be awarded only to those products that “win the endorsement of our most discriminating consumers--the American family,” he said.

Mrs. America families have begun testing a cookware product, an electrical appliance and a weight management and nutrition program, Marmel said.

Participating companies are charged for the testing, but are not guaranteed a favorable rating, he said. Marmel said he hopes the testing program will become a fund-raising vehicle for the pageant and its programs.

The 10th Mrs. America pageant will be broadcast at 9 p.m., April 28 on KTTV, Channel 11 in Los Angeles.

If you don’t want to know the results of the April 10 pageant, go on to the next item.

If you do, here she is, Mrs. America: Cynthia Amann, a 38-year-old Florida mother of two teen-agers and a receptionist in an art gallery. She will represent the United States in the Mrs. of the World pageant in Honolulu this September.