This led Mentzer and his team to develop the first dog bed recycling scheme in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made sure every bit that we added to the dog bed could be turned back into dog beds again and created what we believe and have now proved is the most sustainable dog bed in New Zealand,\u201d Mentzer said.<\/p>\n
Mentzer said the dog beds are circular, as in they can be recycled into more dog beds over and over again.<\/p>\n
The dog beds launched in May last year alongside a digital marketing campaign created by Auckland-based company NZ Digital. <\/p>\n
Wool Life had worked with NZ Digital before and had full trust that the company would create a great launch campaign.<\/p>\n
That campaign used the words; \u201cNew Zealand\u2019s most sustainable dog bed. Recycled, recyclable, and built to last\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mentzer said this claim was not \u201cgreenwashing\u201d – a marketing tactic where businesses make false, misleading or exaggerated claims about products, services or practices to appear more environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ensured we had substantiation for the claims we made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In July, a complaint came into Wool Life\u2019s inbox from an unknown person challenging the company\u2019s claim that they produce the most sustainable dog bed in the country.<\/p>\n
This surprised Mentzer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information regarding our sustainability credentials was in the ad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ensured that we talked about 80% wool-rich recycled textiles, that you can recycle the dog bed. So, we\u2019d put content into the ads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mentzer said the company replied to the email and asked for evidence as to why the complainant disagreed with them, but received no reply.<\/p>\n
Mentzer said he was even more surprised when a complaint was laid with the ASA over the ad in October, and the authority accepted the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite confronting when you\u2019re a small business, not having dealt with that before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you believe something passionately, when you\u2019re passionate about your product, you\u2019re passionate about why you\u2019re doing it, and you\u2019ve got the evidence to prove it, you go through the process and trust you\u2019ll get the outcome you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
After going through the complaints process, the ASA Board came back with the decision to uphold the complaint, despite Mentzer being adamant that there was nothing that had disproved their evidence.<\/p>\n
Mentzer and Wool Life took the ASA\u2019s decision to the appeal board, who unanimously found in favour of Wool Life.<\/p>\n
Mentzer was pleased, explaining the decision meant they could continue selling their dog beds with their sustainability claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re an open, honest, transparent business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone can prove to us we\u2019re wrong, we\u2019d be the first to go, \u2018absolutely, we\u2019re wrong\u2019. But at no point through the process could anybody tell us that.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASA chief executive Hilary Souter said all complaints are considered, but any party to a complaint can appeal a ruling from the complaints board chair, or a complaints board decision.<\/p>\n
Souter said in Wool Life\u2019s appeal application to the ASA, they provided \u201cevidence that had not been available to the complaints board\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom time to time, the appeal board does make a different decision to the complaints board. This is usually because additional information\/evidence has been provided.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it wasn\u2019t common for a complaint to be upheld and then dismissed on appeal, with only two appeal applications being heard by the appeals board in 2024. Both were dismissed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruthful presentation is a key requirement of the ASA Codes. The substantiation provided by the advertiser must prove the claim being made,\u201d Souter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe value consumers using our complaints process for ad compliance concerns and acknowledge the advertising industry\u2019s response in addressing and correcting ads that do not meet the standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This led Mentzer and his team to develop the first dog bed recycling scheme in New Zealand. \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,1740,13022,74,15234,48378,138,6928,8615,1656,12797,5426,14134,9219,43893,1138,1888,6276,5194,1976,424,111,139,69,76379,21324,20110,102,12970],"class_list":["post-251441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-ad","tag-advertisement","tag-after","tag-asa","tag-bed","tag-business","tag-celebrating","tag-come","tag-company","tag-complaint","tag-created","tag-decision","tag-dog","tag-fact","tag-firm","tag-first","tag-gets","tag-hastings","tag-hawkes","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overturned","tag-sustainable","tag-thought","tag-with","tag-wool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}