Dietary Supplement Advertising

FTC Guidance on Dietary Supplement Advertisement

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Dietary Supplement Advertising Compliance

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces laws against “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” in dietary supplement advertising to ensure that consumers get accurate information about dietary supplements so that they can make informed decisions about these products. 

The FTC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) share jurisdiction over claims made by manufacturers of dietary supplements. The FTC and FDA work closely to ensure that their enforcement efforts are consistent to the fullest extent feasible. The FDA has primary responsibility for claims on product labeling, including packaging, inserts, and other promotional materials distributed at the point of sale. The FTC has primary responsibility for claims in advertising, including print and broadcast ads, infomercials, catalogs, and similar direct marketing materials. Marketing on the Internet is subject to regulation in the same fashion as promotions through any other media.

Dietary supplement marketers should ensure that anyone involved in promoting products is familiar with basic FTC advertising principles. The FTC has taken action not only against supplement manufacturers, but also, in appropriate circumstances, against ad agencies, distributors, retailers, catalog companies, infomercial producers and others involved in deceptive promotions.

Therefore, all parties who participate directly or indirectly in the marketing of dietary supplements have an obligation to make sure that claims are presented truthfully and to check the adequacy of the support behind those claims.

FDA’s Role in Improving Nutrition: Labeling and other Authorities

In-Depth Coverage: Marketing and Advertising Compliance

Truth-in-Advertising Law

The FTC's truth-in-advertising law can be summarized to two common-sense propositions:

1) advertising must be truthful and not misleading; and

2) before disseminating an ad, advertisers must have adequate substantiation for all objective product claims. 

A deceptive ad is one that contains a misrepresentation or omission that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances to their detriment.  

How the FTC Analyze Dietary Supplement Advertising

To determine whether an ad complies with FTC law, it is first necessary to identify all express and implied claims that the ad conveys to consumers. Advertisers must make sure that whatever they say expressly in an ad is accurate.  An express claim directly makes a representation.

Often, an ad conveys other claims beyond those expressly stated.  Under FTC law, an advertiser is equally responsible for the accuracy of claims suggested or implied by the ad. Advertisers cannot suggest claims that they could not make directly.

When identifying claims, advertisers should not focus just on individual phrases or statements, but rather should consider the ad as a whole, assessing the “net impression” conveyed by all elements of the ad, including the text, product name, and depictions.

When an ad lends itself to more than one reasonable interpretation, the advertiser is responsible for substantiating each interpretation. Copy tests, or other evidence of how consumers actually interpret an ad, can be valuable. In many cases, however, the implications of the ad are clear enough to determine the existence of the claim by examining the ad alone, without extrinsic evidence.

The identification of an implied claim requires an examination of both the representation and the overall context of the ad, including the juxtaposition of phrases, images, and the nature of the claim and the transaction.

Once the claims are identified, the scientific evidence is assessed to determine whether there are adequate support and substantiation for those claims. The FTC's substantiation standard is a flexible one that depends on many factors. When evaluating claims about the efficacy and safety of foods, dietary supplements and drugs, the FTC has typically applied a substantiation standard of competent and reliable scientific evidence.

For further information of Dietary Supplement Advertising please refer to the following links to FTC Websites.

Dietary Supplements: An Advertising Guide for Industry

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