PILL-LAND IS PAVED WITH FALSE ADS
Sheridan, Mary
Pill-land Is Paved With False Ads By MARY SHERIDAN THE theory, I suppose, is that there's safety in numbers. At any rate, the quacks and near-quacks keep right on making, and selling, and...
...This is one of the cheap wartime rackets (remember Milton Mayer's piece, "The Rullet-Preof Bible," in The Progressive several years ago...
...Parker uses the expres- . sions, "Guaranteed for Life" and "Life Contract Guarantee...
...It would take far more funds and personnel than the FTC and FDA have to investigate all of them promptly...
...or that American's Min-E-Vita (some title, that one) product is an effective remedy for producing vigor or alertness of mind...
...B & H, like the makers of Nutri-Vac and Ovaltine, has 20 days in which to reply...
...The "institute" has been victimizing soldiers and young men with its "12-lesson course in basic and advanced military procedure," claimed to qualify soldiers for promotion and higher pay and to constitute "an officers training course...
...Here are some of the other FTC eases involving misleading advertising: Nutri-Vac...
...Especially since V (for vitamin) Day, manufacturers of various cure-alls have spread like mushrooms...
...It has ordered the eempany to cease claiming that its Bl product is a competent remedy for nervous diseases...
...Sheaffer uses the slogan, "Guaranteed for Life...
...Waterman advertises its "100 Year Pen" and says it's "Guaranteed for a Century...
...This so-called "institute" in Chicago, charges the FTC, is nothing more than a sideline for a man who also sells correspondence courses in law...
...This food product is heavily advertised in newspapers, magazines, and on the radio...
...outfit is Carl E. Koch, who has been associated with anti-Semitic activities...
...The FTC has ordered Sheaffer, Parker, Eversharp, and Waterman to eease their "unqualified representations that their pens are unconditionally guaranteed for the life of the ose-r or for any other designated period, when a service charge is made for repairs or adjustments...
...Bibles for Victory, Imt...
...Familiar to any magazine reader or radio listener are those lifetime guarantees of the major fountain pen concerns...
...This is no serious charge, for the FTC is objecting only to the pen makers' failure to mention, clearly and prominently, that a 35 cent service charge is made to send in pens or pencils for repairs...
...Incidentally, the president of the American Beauty...
...which has capitalized on the emotional appeals of war and patriotism to bring in cash profits...
...But they keep af it...
...The claims, says the FTC, that Ovaltine will increase weight, stimulate the appetite, correct nervous conditions, that Ovaltine helps successfully to fight off colds and sore throat and will assure good eyesight, and that nightly consumption of Ovaltine will enable one to wake up in the morning feeling fresh, vital, vigorous—all these claims, and a few more, charges the FTC, are false...
...Spragwe Military Inst it ate...
...The Chicago Sim recently disclosed that the firm's mailing lists have been used to distribute propaganda promoting racial and religious intolerance...
...At any rate, the quacks and near-quacks keep right on making, and selling, and over-advertising their pills and liquid cures while the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Food & Drug Administration close in on offenders...
...Or that its Vitamin, A and D protect the respiratory system or are any good for eye and teeth diseases...
...The advertising claims for them put the fountain of youth to shame...
...Fountain Pens...
...But1 thanks to the FTC, the false advertising claims of manufacturers stand a chance of being exposed for what they are...
...A New York firm with that indecent title has been ordered by the FTC to stop making false claims that its metal-covered Bibles (which are coated with a gold color, not "24 carat gold plated" as advertised) and prayer books will stop or deflect bullets, shrapnel, or bayonet thriasts, thus providing "armor for hearts" and "saving his life...
...The FTC has charged the Wander Company, its maker, with false advertising of Ovaltine's therapeutic properties...
...of Milwaukee, declaring that ads for this vitamin preparation falsely claim Nutri-Vac will prevent underweight and fatigue or remedy sterility, rickets, alcoholism, or heart trouble, * * * Benson & Hedges Cigarettes...
...Even though the FTC and the FDA records of achievement ought to convince violators that crime doesn't pay, the sales records of too many pili makers indicates that maybe it does...
...Eversharp says its pens and pencils are "Guaranteed Forever...
...Ovaltine...
...One of the most interesting cases in recent weeks is that of the American Beauty Products Co., Chicago, which makes vitamin compounds...
...The FTC, however, has just ordered that American Beauty Products stop representing that its anti-gray hair and nail vitamins restore the natural color of the hair and improve the texture of the skin...
...The FTC has issued a complaint against the Nutri-Vac Co...
...There may be, for false advertisers, temporary safety in numbers beeause America is a big country and beeause there are suckers born every minute...
...The FTC has made a complaint against the Benson St Hedges firm of New York for falsely representing that its Parliament and Virginia Round brands are made in England, have received the endorsement of the Royal Family, and that the company maintains factories in London and Montreal...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 23
