New York, NY – April 22, 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 The Applicator Cosmetic System (“The Applicator”) discontinue general performance claims made in itsonline 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 Applicator Weight Loss Treatment, ERSP requested that the marketer provide substantiation for several general performance claims and testimonials that were communicated in online advertising including:  “You don’t have to exercise to keep the inches off.; “…in just two hours…she lost a total of 5 and ¼ inches…” and “Liposuction without surgery or pain”.

While acknowledging that the marketer had voluntary undertaken the responsibility to modify and discontinue certain claims, ERSP concluded that the marketer did not provide the evidence necessary to support the performance claims made in the advertisement. ERSP therefore recommended discontinuing all performance claims and testimonials until sufficient testing can be conducted to support such representations.

In response to ERSP’s decision, The Applicator Spa System responded “We … are fully committed to working with ERSP to make our advertising truthful and accurate…in the spirit of the self-regulatory system, we already started modifying the website and will use the latest ERSP recommendations to make further revisions in our advertising.”