Electronic Retailer - December 2011 - 14

INDUSTRY REPORTS

FTC Forum

Keeping Your Claims in Shape
BY LESLEY FAIR Get your substantiation in shape or tone down your ads. That’s the message marketers should take from the FTC’s $25 million settlement with Reebok for allegedly false and unsubstantiated claims for the company’s EasyTone and RunTone toning shoes. If sales are any indication, fitness freaks and couch potatoes alike are pumped up about the toning shoe trend. According to the FTC’s complaint, Reebok’s ads were everywhere: in traditional print outlets, on the internet and on social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The TV ads were particularly eye-catching. One spot featured a toned woman speaking directly to the camera: “Reebok EasyTone shoes not only look fantastic, they’ll help make your legs and butt look great, too. It’s the shoe proven …” As the camera zooms to her backside, she addresses the camera operator directly — “Dude!” — who quickly shifts the focus back to her face. She continues, “… to work your hamstrings and calves up to 11 percent harder and tones your butt up to 28 percent more than regular sneakers. Just by walking.” As the camera again moves to her backside, she clears her throat, says “Excuse me!” and motions for camera to move back up. “I take it you would agree?” she finishes.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Reebok failed to have the proof it needed to back up claims that walking in EasyTone footwear — or running in RunTone — will tone and strengthen the legs and butt more than a typical shoe.
Another ad for EasyTone claimed, “Men will be speechless. Women will be jealous. And no one will know that the reason’s on your feet. Discover up to 28 percent more of a workout for your butt. And up to 11 percent more for your hamstrings and calves. Easytone balance ball-inspired technology with moving air creates micro-instability toning and strengthening butt and key leg muscles as you walk.” According to the FTC’s complaint, Reebok failed to have the proof it needed to back up claims that walking in EasyTone footwear — or running in RunTone — will tone and strengthen the legs and butt more than a typical shoe. The FTC also 14

charged Reebok didn’t have lab tests to support its claim that walking in EasyTone, when compared to walking in regular shoes, will improve muscle tone and strength by 28 percent in the glutes, 11 percent in the hamstrings, and 11 percent in the calves. Thus, the complaint challenged Reebok’s “test prove” claim as false. What’s in the Reebok settlement? Strong injunctive provisions for a starter. The company will need competent and reliable scientific evidence to support claims that a product will strengthen muscles or result in a quantified percentage or amount of toning or strengthening. The order defines “competent and reliable scientific evidence” in this context to mean “at least one Adequate and Well-Controlled Human Clinical Study of the Covered Product that conforms to acceptable designs and protocols, the results of which, when considered in light of the entire body of relevant and reliable scientific evidence, is sufficient to substantiate that the representation is true.” The company will need sound science to back up other health and fitness claims, too. Reebok will pay $25 million in refunds to people who bought the shoes and Reebok toning apparel. The company also has to contact retailers about removing point-of-purchase materials and packaging that make the claims the FTC challenged as misleading. Looking for more on substantiating health and fitness claims? Visit business.ftc.gov. Lesley Fair is an attorney with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Reebok

electronicRETAILER | December 2011

Electronic Retailer - December 2011

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