SharkNinja: ‘America’s #1 Floorcare Brand’

A self-regulatory group recently recommended that SharkNinja remove the claim that it is “America’s #1 Floorcare Brand” or modify it to make clear that the “#1” claim is based on dollar sales, not units sold.

The National Advertising Division said in a press release announcing the decision last week:

NAD noted the data shows that when consumers chose a floorcare product, more chose a Bissell over a Shark product (2022 year end) and Shark sold four million (or over 30%) fewer units than Bissell in the relevant category. NAD determined that in this context, with a wide disparity in unit sales in the floorcare category, consumers would reasonably expect that the “#1 brand” is the #1 brand in popularity even if there is another leader in dollar sales.

Bissell had challenged the claim, which appeared in an infomercial for the Shark CarpetXpert upright deep cleaner.

In its advertiser statement to NAD, Shark said that while it “does not agree with NAD’s analysis and believes the existing, prominent disclosure language provides more than adequate explanation of Shark’s leading market share,” it will comply with the decision.

Find more of our coverage on superiority claims here.