Opinion ID: 687273
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: False Messages

Text: 14 District Judge Tenney found that the only literal message conveyed to consumers was that Spic and Span was superior to LYSOL. L & F suggests that we are as well-positioned as was the district court to review the commercials and make that determination. In a carefully couched invitation, it asks that we apply a less deferential standard of review to the district court's determination of facial falsity. The standard of review, however, has been resolved. 15 The district court's determination with respect to facial falsity is a finding of fact which we review for clear error. See Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp. v. Cosprophar, Inc., 32 F.3d 690, 693 (2d Cir.1994); GAC Int'l, 862 F.2d at 979. This Court will not disturb factual determinations unless we are left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); see also McNeil-P.C.C., Inc. v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., 938 F.2d 1544, 1550 (2d Cir.1991). We are left with no such conviction. 16 The district court carefully analyzed the findings of L & F's consumer survey. The survey polled pre-screened shoppers in certain malls nationwide. The shoppers viewed the commercials and were asked several questions that allowed them to express, in their own words, the meaning of the commercials. The study purported to show that consumers perceived derogatory messages about the unnamed competitive cleaner. 17 The court, however, found both the study and its tabulation to be riddled with flaws. The court meticulously reviewed the formulation of questions put to consumers, read the responses, and analyzed the survey's tabulation. Rejecting certain of the report's conclusions, and discounting others, the district court concluded that the primary message of the commercial[s] was comparative. L & F does not contest the district court's assessment of its study on this appeal. 18 Furthermore, the court reviewed the videotapes of the commercials. It is clear from its opinion that the court itself perceived no hidden messages. Finally, the court also considered the testimony and cross-examination of the parties' respective expert witnesses on this point. We find no error in Judge Tenney's conclusion that product superiority was the only message conveyed by the commercials. 19 We thus reject what appears to be L & F's chief grievance: that the rug-pull effect conveyed the false message that LYSOL merely appears to clean. By rug-pull the parties refer to the surprise at the end of each commercial, when it is revealed that LYSOL has not cleaned as effectively as Spic and Span. L & F's argument is, in essence, that, although LYSOL might be less effective than Spic and Span, it nonetheless would not leave a surface looking clean until it was in fact clean. In other words, a real consumer would, unlike the television viewers, never be unpleasantly surprised. 20 The difficulty with L & F's argument is that L & F did not establish at trial that the message was false. Despite L & F's complaints about the techniques employed to create the commercials, the fact remains that the two products were handled in identical fashions. An equal number of swipes was applied with comparable force to surfaces coated with a laboratory-developed soap scum that fairly represented the tenacity of the soap deposits found in some homes. Finding no fault with the commercials' production, we cannot dispute the ultimate message: that, at the point when Spic and Span has cleaned a surface, a surface cleaned with LYSOL will not yet be as clean. Because the proof at trial did not establish the falsity of this message, the district court did not clearly err. 21 In reaching our conclusion, we have rejected several of L & F's arguments with respect to the manner in which the district court analyzed the alleged flaws in the commercials. First, L & F claims that the court displayed an impermissible skepticism toward L & F's assertion that the visual images projected by the commercials could convey false messages. A reading of Judge Tenney's opinion makes clear that he simply did not find the ads misleading. Surely he appreciated that largely visual images are capable of conveying a false message. 22 Second, L & F claims that the district court erred as a matter of law in relying on the survey to determine that only one message was conveyed. This claim is likewise unavailing. It is undisputed that the district court must rely on extrinsic evidence to support a finding of an impliedly false message. See Smithkline Beecham, 960 F.2d at 297. Why such proof could not also support a finding that no facially false messages were being conveyed is not obvious. L & F has provided neither authority nor a persuasive argument that use of the consumer survey to sustain a finding that no literally false messages were imparted was error. We must therefore reject its bare assertion.