BBB National Programs Archive

Curb Your Craving, LLC Participates In ERSP Self-Regulatory Forum

 New York, NY – April 13, 2005 – The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (“ERSP”), the electronic direct-response industry’s self-regulatory forum supervised by the National Advertising Review Council (“NARC”), announced that it has recommended that direct response marketer Curb Your Cravings , LLC (“Curb Your Cravings”) discontinue general performance claims made in its web pop-up, email marketing, and online advertising.  The truth and accuracy of the marketer’s claims came to the attention of ERSP from a consumer complaint.

In the inquiry for the Curb Your Cravings diet patch, ERSP requested that the marketer provide substantiation for several general performance claims and testimonials that were communicated in online advertising including:  “Lose up to 30 pounds in 30 days”; “put on the Patch, take off pounds” and “Your patch has already helped my current weight loss of 15 pounds in one week”.

ERSP determined that the evidence provided by the marketer did not provide a reasonable basis for the very specific weight loss performance claims. Accordingly, it is recommended that the marketer discontinue any performance claims for the diet patch until reliable and competent testing is conducted on the product. It is further recommended that Curb Your Cravings conduct additional testing on the patch in order to properly assess the safety profile of the diet patch as it is presently constituted.

In response to ERSP’s decision, Curb Your Cravings LLC responded “…We continue to believe our product is effective and safe… Even though we disagree with the NARC’s decision, Curb Your Cravings LLC has decided that it will modify its advertising and discontinue the use of the general performance claims that were the basis of the inquiry.”