Truth in Advertising; Faith in Products

We all know the adage if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. As a consumer, when I see an ad for a weight loss supplement that promises you can eat all you want and lose pounds in your sleep, or an infomercial for a miracle product that claims to cure cancer, I feel skeptical. As the head of a trade association representing the supplement industry, I feel dismayed.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) believes the overwhelming majority of dietary supplement marketers are acting responsibly and prudently in their advertising claims. But we also believe that for every supplement advertisement that misleads, deceives or bamboozles consumers, we lose groundfor all our products. And eroding consumer confidence cuts into efforts to build a stronger customer base for legitimate products. Conversely, when consumers have more confidence in the claims made about our products, their interest in purchasing our products will increase as well.

So whats an industry to do? Dietary supplements have moved beyond a niche business and matured into a robust and mainstream industry with products used by more than 150 million Americans each year. We owe it to ourselves and to our consumers to engage in self-regulation to help ensure that ads do not over-promise and that products can truly deliver the benefits we say they can.

Self-regulation is crucial for this industry. We appreciate the role of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and, particularly in recent years, recognize the important steps the agency has taken to rid the market of advertisements that litter the airwaves, the Internet and magazines with junk claims about supplements. But mature industries find ways to minimize government involvement in order to avoid Draconian sanctions, criminal lawsuits and punitive fines.

Thus, CRN announced a new initiative with the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB) that will increase monitoring of dietary supplement advertising, adding to self-regulatory programs that are already in place and rewarding companies that play by the rules, by exposing companies that dont. By pledging nearly a half million dollars over the next three years for this effort, CRN will enable NAD to more than triple the number of cases it undertakes related to dietary supplement advertising reviews each year. Between its own monitoring and advertising challenges brought by industry members, the NADs program will examine radio, television, Internet and print advertising, asking the simple question: Are the claims made in these ads truthful, substantiated and not misleading to consumers?

In order for this program to succeed, it must truly be an industry-wide effort. Companies must step up to the plate and take ownership of the conceptand be willing to file challenges with NAD. Turning in competitors may not sound like the gentlemanly thing to do; but, if companies focus on the most egregious ads that disparage the reputation of the entire industry, rather than on comparative claims that involve competitor squabbles, the decision to challenge a deceptive ad is truly the courageous thing to do. It says responsible companies will not be held hostage by those that seek to destroy the bond of trust between marketers and consumers.

Although CRN member companies and BBB members get a discount for bringing challenges, all companies are eligible to bring a challenge to NAD. At the discounted rate of $2,500 per challenge, these things are certainly not free; however, it is a relatively small price to pay on a company-by-company basis to help clean up our industrys advertising practices. Its a reasonable and cost-effective outlet for those companies that do exercise restraint in their advertising to shine the light of scrutiny on those who dont. And when that happens, consumers will have even more confidence in the advertising of dietary supplements and the benefits they provide. Its one more piece in the puzzle that will guarantee the only way our industry will surviveand thrivein the long-run.

Steve Mister is the president and chief executive officer of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (www.crnusa.org).