Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop slammed for “deceptive” health claims (foxnews.com).
“The nonprofit organization Truth in Advertising filed a complaint on Tuesday to the California Food, Drug and Medical Device Task Force, accusing Goop of promoting ‘unsubstantiated, and therefore deceptive, health and disease-treatment claims’ through products such as its yoni eggs and Shamam-inspired medicine bags. ‘The company claims, either expressly or implicitly, that its products (or those it promotes) can treat, cure, prevent, alleviate the symptoms of, or reduce the risk of developing a number of ailments,’ the statement read. ‘The problem is that the company does not possess the competent and reliable scientific evidence required by law to make such claims.’”
Not the first—including NASA (cnn.com, Jun. 2017)—and doubtless not the last to label the products and the alternative holistic medicine pseudo science as simply snake oil, but then again those “yoni eggs” inserted into a lady’s Georgia O’Keeffe spread petals are available at Amazon too (amazon.co.uk) albeit without quite the same explicit goop removing claims.
“Truth in Advertising announced its concerns with Goop’s products in an Aug. 11 statement, specifically noting a blog post that had ‘problematic health claims.’ The organization gave Goop an Aug. 18 deadline to correct alleged illegal health claims on its website. ‘Despite being handed this information, Goop to date has only made limited changes to its marketing,’ the organization said.”
Ad revenue snake oil kettle reporting pot black?
But with regards dubious health claims, should you view that very article on phone or tablet or turn your adblock off, ad revenue accruing “Sponsored Stories You Might Like” links seemingly aimed at the same desperate demographic at the bottom of the FoxNews page that if clicked make claim for Type II diabetes being controlled simply with “delicious dish” or “miracle smoothie” snake oil rather than “expensive pills” or insulin injections could also be considered rather “problematic” with regards how we are told we should not ad block such in the interests of preserving website revenue too.
Recent/related stories
- Firefox 57 fights back and EPIC Google’s store tracking algorithm complaint (Latest Picks 4th August 2017)
- Amazon is going to [ad revenue] battle with YouTube (Latest Picks 12th May 2016)
- Pressure mounts at Google to find something beyond search (Latest Picks 23rd April 2016)
Share this story