Tuesday, January 20, 2015

BEWARE OF FALSE MARKETING CLAIMS OF COSMETIC BRANDS

In a new story, online journal "Cosmetics Design' quotes the recent study by the University of Toronto which reports little or no benefits from the nutrient addition in functional beverages, many of which are being marketed with 'beauty from within claims'.

We have seen frequent cases where cosmetic companies have been charged for influencing customers with false claims.  In June last year, L'Oreal settled with Federal Trade Commission which held that the company made false and unsubstantiated claims with regard to its anti-aging formulation. Before that, it was Estee Lauder which was caught on wrong footing over its "night repair' claim which was alleged to be false marketing tactic.

The false marketing campaigns, especially by the online retailers, are on the rise, putting the customer at quite a disadvantage. It is also not easy to book many online retailers on this account.  It is, therefore, the customers who have to exercise due care in reading the contents, examining the label of the product for information before purchase, instead of going by the unverifiable claims of the retailers. This is, especially important for online purchasing where ingredients of the products are missing from the labels.


There is a piece of good advice from one retailer: don't believe everything you read, especially when you find outrageous cosmetic claims; "expensive does not mean better"; cosmetic sales people are not always skin care experts; and that almost every cosmetic company loves to tell customers that it has studies to support its lofty claims.  In actual effect, most of such studies are neither publis works, nor are they available for review.

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