WASHINGTON—Supplement marketers Great American Products, Physician's Choice and Stephen Karian violated a prior court order, according to FTC, which reported the defendants recently failed to include clear, audible and properly placed disclosures for programs that actually were paid advertisements. The new court order presents the Destin, Fla.-based defendants with a slew of requirements for ad disclosures for their dietary supplement marketing.
The original order settled FTC charges that the defendants deceptively marketed their dietary supplements, sublingual sprays and other products. Despite the order’s specific requirements on how to disclose the programs as paid advertisements, the defendants aired a number of television and radio infomercials that did not make the proper disclosures.
Under the new order, the defendants must display a visual paid advertising disclosure continuously throughout the ordering instructions during television advertisements. They must also broadcast a supplemental audio paid advertising disclosure simultaneously with the initial visual disclosure (in the first 30 seconds of the advertisement, for a period of at least 10 seconds); this message must be clear, audible, in a cadence sufficient for the ordinary consumer to hear and comprehend and at a volume as loud or louder than the loudest statement in the advertisement. In addition, paid advertising disclosure for a radio advertisement must meet the same loudness requirement, and the defendants must make the disclosure immediately prior to ordering instructions.
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