Social Media Video Implying Superfoods Immunity Bundle Protects Against COVID-19 is Discontinued Following NAD Inquiry
For Immediate Release
New York, NY – June 4, 2020 – Following an inquiry by the National Advertising Division (NAD), Your Superfoods, Inc. immediately discontinued a social media video that conveyed an implied message that taking Your Superfoods Immunity Bundle protects consumers against COVID-19.
NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation and is a division of the BBB National Programs’ self-regulatory and dispute resolution programs.
Through a routine monitoring program, NAD challenged the advertisement by Your Superfoods noting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued numerous warning letters to dietary supplement manufacturers in response to advertisements touting their products’ abilities to cure or increase consumers’ immunity to protect them from COVID-19. NAD shares the FTC and FDA’s concerns and is using its monitoring resources to find claims for products touting misleading health-conferring benefits related to COVID-19 as part of its public interest mission to protect consumers particularly during this unprecedented time.
The challenged video showed the owners of Your Superfoods touting their Superfoods Immunity Bundle and included the following dialogue:
“[W]ith all that’s going on, with the coronavirus…there is a piece that we can control and that is our own health and building our immune system because its depends on what we eat….It’s super important to have a lot of micronutrients now, so Superfoods can help. We have this amazing immunity bundle – Super Greens to up your green, Mellow Yellow which really reduces your stress because [stress] actually reduces your immunity, and then we also have immunity boosting mushrooms in our Magic Mushroom mix.”
In response to NAD’s inquiry, the advertiser informed NAD that it discontinued the video in question and that it would take immediate steps to ensure that its advertising does not make any express or implied claims as to the efficacy of its products in preventing COVID-19.
In its advertiser’s statement, Your Superfoods stated that it “respectfully disagrees with NAD’s position that the video implied that the Immunity Bundle will protect consumers against COVID-19. Nevertheless, out of respect for the self-regulatory process, Your Superfoods voluntarily removed the video from circulation.”
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