Amazerx Participates In ERSP Forum
New York, NY– May 19, 2008 – The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) has determined that AmazeRx, Ltd., can support the general efficacy claims it makes for the AmazeRx meal replacement product at the company’s Website. However, ERSP recommended the marketer modify or discontinue claims made at a third-party Website and in broadcast advertising. The marketer’s advertising was brought to ERSP’s attention by a consumer complaint.
Claims at issue in the ERSP inquiry included:
- “AmazeRx allows you to lose weight without having to exercise”
- “With AmazeRx, you can lose up to a pound a day while drinking a fantastic meal.”
- “Because it is in a liquid form, it is absorbed directly into the body, much quicker than pills”
- ERSP determined that the claims at issue were adequately qualified and supported at the marketer’s Website, www.amazerx.com.
However, ERSP recommended that the marketer modify or discontinue certain advertising claims that appear on a third-party affiliate Website, www.offcialtvwebsite.com/amazerx, and in an infomercial for the product.
ERSP determined that the third-party Website contains streaming video and several consumer testimonials that appear with select typicality disclosures. ERSP found that the small “results may vary” disclosure that appear with the consumer testimonials are not conspicuous and are not included with consumer testimonials which appear later on in the video.
Further, advertising at the third-party site does not make it clear that AmazeRx is a meal replacement program, an omission that communicates an ambiguous message to consumers. ERSP recommended the marketer clearly disclose that information. In addition, the third-party site includes a prominent “Lose up to a pound a day” claim — a primary issue in this inquiry. The claim was accompanied by the express statement that “best of all AmazeRx allows you to lose weight without having to exercise.” ERSP determined that meaningful weight loss of “up to a pound a day” without exercise appears possible in only the most extraordinary circumstances and recommended that this claim be discontinued in the context of both the infomercial and the third-party Website
ERSP, in its decision, noted that while ERSP understands “that AmazeRx does not own the www.offcialtvwebsite.com/amazerx Website, it does license the product to the owner of the site.”
ERSP recommended that the marketer “exercise the necessary degree of due diligence to assure that the licensee markets the AmazeRx product truthfully and accurately.”
ERSP found that the fact that AmazeRx is a meal replacement program would be reasonably understood by consumers viewing the infomercial.
The company, in its marketer’s statement, said it would revise its “advertising to address [ERSP’s] concerns. AmazeRX will also communicate ERSP’s concerns to the owner” of the third-party Website.”
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