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Anyone else find this disturbing?
Check out this brochure for a material called “Actigym” offered by Lipotech:
I came across this material several months ago and chuckled at not only the audacity, but the daring of a company that would push a product as farfetched as this. And not only that, but to do so with some seriously flawed scientific presentation (not to mention those abdomen pictures are clearly and rather poorly photoshopped). After having a good laugh and dismissing this material, I find this:Has the world lost its mind or am I missing something here? -
8 Replies
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You have stumbled upon one of the little secrets of the cosmetic industry. There is nothing to keep a cosmetic manufacturer from saying “Contains ACTIGYM!” on the label of their product (as long as there actually is some in there)
The manufacturer can also say “ACTIGYM has been shown to cause miraculous benefits!” and refer back to the supplier literature. The supplier literature doesn’t have to make much scientific sense - as long as the cosmetic manufacturer can point to it and say “I just said what they said” , they can legally be in the clear. -
@Bob, how can the supplier get away with it? Is it legal to photoshop pictures?
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Well…the supplier isn’t selling to the general public, so there’s not a lot of illegality going on - certainly nothing that would involve the justice system here. A lawsuit by a customer would probably win - but since the pictures are helping the customers sell product, I doubt that would happen.
Neither the product manufacturer nor the ingredient supplier have really done anything illegal here - the only thing they’d have to worry about is making sure that they are not making drug claims that would get the FDA involved.Also, look up the concept of “puffery” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffery, which is frequently used as a defense in cases like this. -
Yeah, this is all puffery. You see this kind of marketing everywhere. On some level it is up to the consumer (or buyer) to be skeptical.
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What is astonishing about this is that any reasonable person can see that this is puffery, and yet it won an award for scientific innovation. So often we lament groups that aren’t inside or actively involved in our industry for pushing pseudoscience and purposefully perpetuating misconceptions. Disheartening to see it within the industry as well.
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@Bati - you make an excellent point. It could be this ingredient was just the best of the ingredients submitted. This is more of reflection of the dearth of true innovation in the cosmetic industry. I can’t remember the last time any real innovative ingredient was launched. Maybe the Rhodia Structured surfactant?
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@Bobzchemist - Unless these people can prove their product works, which would be very hard to believe, wouldn’t be deceptive advertisement and violate FTC rules?
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@Ruben - this was the marketing at an industry trade show and not for consumers. I doubt the FTC has time or money to pursue any action. I’m not even sure if their rules apply.
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