P&G Calls Lay's Ad Claim False

CHICAGO Procter & Gamble has asked Pepsico’s Frito-Lay unit to stop running an advertisement asserting that people prefer Lay’s Stax over P&G’s Pringles potato chips.

“Our data shows their claim is false,” said a representative for the Cincinnati-based packaged-goods company. “Research that we did showed there was a directional preference toward Pringles, but the numbers were pretty close.”

P&G officials sent the letter last week, according to the rep.

The ad from BBDO in New York aired on ABC’s Academy Awards telecast and claimed that people preferred Stax over Pringles in a blind taste-test.