This is the intriguing question posed by a recent NAD Decision. In this routine monitoring case, NAD reviewed claims made by Next Health, a wellness and longevity clinic offering personalized medical services such as IV drips,cryotherapy, infrared therapy, and hyperbaric oxygen treatments. In addition to addressing specific claims aboutearly detection of serious diseases, which NAD determined were not adequately supported by the advertiser's evidence, NAD also examined what it determined was an implied claim that Next Health's services ensure clients can live longer, disease-free, lives.
NAD found that this implied claim was reinforced by the medical graphics and text on the website describing Next Health as 'a health optimization and longevity center' and the Executive Physical as a product that promotes 'a healthier and longer future.'"Accordingly, and not surprisingly, having found that the advertising conveyed a promise of longevity and better health, NAD determined that there was insufficient support. Thus, NAD recommended that the advertiser discontinue its claims. And, because the advertiser declined to provide an Advertiser Statement indicating that it would comply with NAD recommendations, NAD referred the matter to the government.
Much of this is plain vanilla stuff for NAD: an advertiser makes a serious health claim, NAD examines the substantiation (here, studies about the types of diagnostic tests performed by the advertiser), determines that it is insufficient as competent and reliable evidence to support the claims, and recommends discontinuance. What's interesting, though, is how NAD approached the implied claim. And there, context is everything.
At first blush, I confess, I reacted with "oh, c'mon". I mean, who's going to believe anyone who promises them a healthier and longer future? But the advertiser didn't argue puffery. It is actually selling (not cheaply) "lifesaving outcomes through advanced diagnostics" and a variety of treatments to "optimize health." Reasonable well-heeled consumers in our current wellness-obsessed culture could well take away a real promise of a longer healthier life from the advertiser's claims. The advertiser promises the fountain of youth, but with needles, plasma and advanced scanning technology. Unlike the fountain of youth, however, all that tech can be clinically tested. But those tests did not show that the advertiser's clients live longer, disease-free, lives, as promised. Alas.
Case Report #7327
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