Armor All Sues Rival, Claiming Its Ads Are Deceptive : Courts: Aliso Viejo-based company is seeking to block TV commercials alleging that its water sealer is substandard. Thompson Minwax has filed countersuit.
Armor All Products Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit in New York claiming that a competitor is airing unfair and deceptive television commercials that portray one of Armor All’s new home-care products as performing below industry standards.
The Aliso Viejo-based company, which has been plagued by periodic reports of problems with the performance of its car-care products, is suing to block two nationally televised commercials that say the company’s new water seal product for use on home decks and other wood surfaces fared poorly in tests accepted industrywide.
The suit was filed against Thompson Minwax Co., maker of Thompson Water Seal, which has long dominated the market for water sealers. Officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon at either Thompson or its parent company, the New York-based Forstmann Little & Co.
Thompson, however, has filed a countersuit in New York claiming that Armor All has itself aired misleading information while advertising its new Deck Protector Waterproofing Sealer.
The original suit, brought by Armor All, claims that the industry standard cited by the Thompson Water Seal commercials is an outdated measurement that cannot gauge the quality of Armor All’s product because it differs greatly from traditional sealers.
The test, designed 11 years ago by the American Society of Testing Methodology, is for solvent-based sealers, not newly devised water-based products such as the Armor All sealer, company officials contend.
“This test is just irrelevant to our product,” said Melanie D. Day, director of Armor All investor relations. “It doesn’t work with our technology. It’s like giving someone a driving test in a Model T.”
The Armor All water sealer, which was introduced in February and uses new technology devised by Dow Corning Corp., is part of a line of products from the company’s 2-year-old home-care products division in Charleston, S.C.
Armor All, best known for its line of car-care products, has been accused of covering up research findings that those products cause tires and air-bag covers to weaken and crack.
The company denied the allegations by former research manager Pritam S. Dhaliwal that the products create a hazard.
A San Bernardino Superior Court judge in May approved a company request to seal records in a wrongful-termination suit brought by Dhaliwal. The suit is still pending.
