Royal Purple Gets Called Out

[Polygon]

Forgive me if this is a repost, but I ran a quick search and didn't find anything. It's worth a look. BP Lubricants has filed a complaint against RP for fraudulent advertising, pretty much. I would bet that it's not a true synthetic and they're still using a group III hydrocracked base.

Royal Purple Ltd. was black and blue after BP Lubricants USA took it to task over advertising claims for its synthetic motor oil, finding a receptive audience in the advertising industry’s self-regulatory forum.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus recommended Porter, Texas-based Royal Purple modify or discontinue numerous advertising claims for its synthetic motor oil, following a challenge by Wayne, N.J.-based BP Lubricants. The NAD examined comparative performance and superiority claims in print, broadcast and Internet advertising. In some of the advertising, Royal Purple compared its performance to Castrol, Shell, Amsoil and other motor oil brands.

NAD recommended that Royal Purple discontinue its use of consumer testimonials reporting specific performance attributes in the absence of reliable independent evidence showing performance capability.

“Anecdotal evidence based solely on the experiences of individual consumers is insufficient to support product efficacy claims, including claims related to horsepower, torque, fuel economy or engine heat,” the organization stated. “While the advertiser may quote from published articles if it provides clear and conspicuous attribution to the publisher, it may not rely on such articles to support efficacy claims for which it has no reliable independent validation.”

NAD recommended Royal Purple discontinue claims such as “Increases horsepower and torque by as much as 3 percent,” “Reduces Engine Wear by 80 percent,” “Superior Oxidation Stability” and “Provides Film Strength Up to 400 Percent.”

“If industry-standard tests or tests with carefully documented controls were abandoned, there would be no basis whatsoever for making any meaningful claims about the relative efficacy of motor oils,” BP said in its challenge.

NAD recommended that Royal Purple discontinue claims that stated, “Improves fuel economy by as much as 5 percent” and “Fuel economy improvement up to 5 percent or more” because its Environmental Protection Agency testing was inconclusive and the “Oklahoma State Study” and single cylinder Labeco CLR diesel engine testing cited in Royal Purple’s advertising was not relevant. The NAD noted the 1997 OSU Study was “outdated and nothing in the record demonstrated that the formulations of the competitors’ oils were similar to those available for sale on the market today.”

BP Lubricants said it hired the independent laboratory Southwest Research Institute, in San Antonio, to analyze power output of gasoline engines with Royal Purple Oil and with BP’s Castrol oil for comparisons. “The results were provided to the challenger’s expert statistician who was not informed of the identity of the candidate oils,” NAD stated. “The challenger’s [BP’s] expert determined a 0.9 percent difference in power between the oils, which did not rise to the level of statistical significance, and is well below the 3 percent claim made by the advertiser.”

SwRI did additional tests to independently determine the differences in fuel economy, emissions data and engine temperature between Royal Purple and Castrol motor oils. According to SwRI, “there was no statistically significant difference between the fuel economy, emissions data or engine temperature between the two candidate oils,” NAD said.

Following its review of the non-anecdotal evidence in the record, NAD recommended that Royal Purple discontinue the claims, “Reduces emissions up to 20 percent or more” and “Reductions in emissions of 20 percent or more” because the studies on which the claims were based were outdated and not consumer-relevant.

NAD also recommended the advertiser discontinue its unsupported claim that Royal purple motor oil is “API/ILSAC Certified.” Noting that API and ILSAC licenses and certifications have many categories with different meanings, the NAD recommended that the company discontinue its claim that its synthetic oils are “generally ‘API/ILSAC Certified.’”

In fact, no Royal Purple products are certified to current ILSAC specifications.

The American Petroleum Institute licenses its trademarked Service Symbol, or ‘donut,’ for display on qualified engine oils, and also licenses the ILSAC ‘starburst’ logo for oils that meet the auto industry’s latest energy-conserving standards. In API’s online directory of licensees for its Engine Oil Licensing and Certification Program, Royal Purple has a total of 23 passenger car and diesel engine oil products listed, all licensed to use the API donut. Five of these may additionally display the words ‘energy conserving’ within the donut logo, but none of the Royal Purple products are licensable to the current ILSAC GF-4 specification and they cannot display the starburst logo.

Royal Purple also voluntarily agreed to discontinue the claims, “most advanced,” “unsurpassed performance” and “unparalleled performance,” steps the NAD said were necessary and proper to avoid confusion in the marketplace.

“While Royal Purple also believes that the tests and testimonials it supplied as evidence accurately portray the benefits of using its synthetic oil in a wide variety of applications, it defers to the NAD’s position that those tests and testimonials alone are insufficient to support specific performance attribute claims in consumer advertising,” the company said in its response to NAD. “... [Royal Purple] has already made changes to its advertising in accordance with the NAD recommendations and will continue to implement NAD’s recommendations and analysis in developing Royal Purple’s future advertising.”

BP Lubricants did not return phone calls from Lube Report requesting comment on NAD’s decision.

Truth in Advertising: BP v. Royal Purple

[Import Power]

It's mobil 1 all over again.

-Chris

[xboxmods]

all i'm gonna say is my lifter tick disappeared after a couple hundred miles with RP. interesting read though.

[byebye_sti]

Yeah, my lifter tick went away and stays away with Royal Purple.

[Polygon]

Originally Posted by xboxmods

all i'm gonna say is my lifter tick disappeared after a couple hundred miles with RP. interesting read though.

Fine, but that's hardly conclusive.

[q2418130103p]

I run 100% Slick-50 for motor oil, maybe I should switch to 50/50 RP and Xado





(jk, dont sue me if you try that and your engine explodes)

[vr4operator]

Originally Posted by Polygon

Fine, but that's hardly conclusive.

Lots of things, including the press release from BP (a competitor), are inconclusive.

First off, its one test, by one independent company. Get three and I'll listen.

When I bought my VR4, she had lifter tick (2nd gen). Mobil One was what she'd been getting. After acouple changes, I tried Castrol Synthetic, no change. Went to RP and it would go away for about 3-4k miles. My guess is as the oil got 'dirty' it would get noisy. Fine with me, it was my oil change indicator, lol.

If we took every company to task on everything they said, alot of companies would be in trouble.

Lets say for example, Joe Smith is an engine builder, world famous. Says his builds get 10% more HP than anyone else. Well, he uses his dyno. Then John S. down the street puts it on a different type of dyno and gets a different result. Whos wrong? Whos right? Both. Neither did enough scientific research to find the truth. Did the independent lab use the same testing as RP? While these vids are from RP website, they are all nationally recognized TV programs. CLICK HERE. And before someone says something, yes, I believe RP sponsored some of these, but watch for yourself...

I used to do oil analysis for aircraft. Every sample was tested 3 times. There are too many variables. 3 times and they better be spot on or another sample is taken.

Another thing, why can't RP claim “Increases horsepower and torque by as much as 3 percent”? If they have a dyno that showed a 3% gain, then its true. Just because it worked in one motor and not another, doesn't disprove their claim.

In order for it to be false advertising, BP has to prove RP intentionally lied to the public.

The new Hyundai Genesis V8 claims 375hp. Our cars claimed 320hp. How many times have R&T put new cars on the dyno and find the HP numbers are lower, sometimes quite a bit (and don't go into at the crank, etc that taking into consideration). So do the car companies fall into this same category? If your new car doesn't hit the stated marks, is it false advertising? And be realistic. Theres a difference in a claim vs actual, but what the given % difference thats ok?

In the end, its whats makes you happy. Me? I switched ALL my lubricants in the VR4 to RP after being so happy with the motor. Not to mention when the motor was apart, the engine rebuilder was pretty impressed with the wear. I'm not claiming its all RP, but she had 122k when I made the switch and the motor blew (due to a lean issue, not oil) at 157k. Mechanic was impressed and told me to continue the RP after break in, and I happy have.

Butch

PS ahhh, can't beat a good chevy vs ford argument, cause that what these oil things always turn into... what ya know and what you like...

[wraith]

My buddy spun a bearing in his 3000gt after the first oil change over to royal purple LOL!

[Polygon]

Originally Posted by vr4operator

Lots of things, including the press release from BP (a competitor), are inconclusive.

First off, its one test, by one independent company. Get three and I'll listen.

Butch

Butch, I'm not posting this stir the pot and try to make RP look bad. I was just posting up the info cause' I think it's interesting. As for my comment, you can't argue that his conclusions were hardly scientific.

I for one am not pleased with RP. I've run it twice now in my TT. Lifter tick has not gone away and I have a noticeable drop in oil pressure after a few WOT runs. My problem with it is the inflated price of something that's marginally better than Mobil 1.

[wraith]

I dont even think its better then Mobil 1, but thats my opinion after using Mobil 1 since I bought the car and never spinning a bearing all the while beating the piss out of it for almost a decade as a DD