The FTC announced that it has reached a settlement with the makers of Tropicana Orange juice (Pepsi) for unsubstantiated claims about the ability of Tropicana Healthy Heart juice to decrease the likelihood of stroke and heart disease.

The juicy details: From 2002 until early 2004, Tropicana ran commercials on television and in magazines for its Healthy Heart orange juice. The ads claimed that by drinking 2 to 3 glasses a day, consumers could lower their systolic blood pressure by 10 points and increase their HDL cholesterol (the good one) by over 20%, all of which would lead to a decrease in likelihood of stroke. According to the FTC, Tropicana had no scientific evidence that the claims it was making were actually true. In peeling back the skin on Tropicana’s claims, the FTC charged that the studies pointing to these dramatic results did not actually prove Tropicana’s assertions.

Under the pithy terms of the settlement, Tropicana can no longer make claims relating to its orange juice increasing HDL cholesteral, lowering blood pressure, or contribution to a reduction in stroke unless it can scientifically substantiate its claims.

Practice Pointer Clients should be advised that all claims that do not amount to mere puffery must be substantiated with methods that may be easily replicated. Two independent scientific studies is considered good evidence of a claim.

This entry was posted by Tsan Abrahamson on Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.