NAD Addresses Implied Coronavirus Cure Claims

We’ve posted about how the FTC, FDA, and EPA have each targeted companies for making unsubstantiated claims about how their products can treat or cure the coronavirus. Now, we’ll add another acronym to the list – NAD.

NAD recently issued a decision involving a video by the owners Your Superfoods, promoting the company’s Immunity Bundle. But the claims in this video are a little different than the ones recently targeted by the federal agencies. Here’s the relevant part of the video:

With all that’s going on, with the coronavirus there is [sic] a lot of things you cannot control. However, 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.

Notice that the owners don’t actually say their products can treat or cure the coronavirus. (Not even their magical mushrooms.) Instead, the only reference to the coronavirus is the true statement in the first sentence. Here, NAD was likely concerned that following that sentence with other sentences about how the products can help consumers build immune systems could lead viewers to believe that the immunity extended to the coronavirus, itself.

Whether you are talking about health or something more mundane, this case should serve as a reminder that ads can be deemed misleading, even if the individual claims in the ads are literally true. What matters is how reasonable consumers will interpret the claims in context. Make sure you view your ads through their eyes and that you can substantiate all likely interpretations.