Watchdog Org Found 50 Instances of GOOP Making False Claims About Its Products
GOOP has always made wild claims about its products, from suggesting its famous jade eggs can balance your hormones to selling "spirit dust" to "align with bliss." On the surface, it's easy to pass the florid language off as typical advertising mumbo-jumbo. But the Truth In Advertising (TINA) organization is taking Gwyneth Paltrow's company to task.
Yesterday, TINA filed a complaint against GOOP to the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force, alleging "that the company uses unsubstantiated, and therefore deceptive, health and disease-treatment claims to market many of its products." According to the complaint, TINA sent GOOP a list of 50 examples of the company's false claims on August 11, and as of August 22 they have only changed a few of their listings.
"Marketing products as having the ability to treat diseases and disorders not only violates established law but is a terribly deceptive marketing ploy that is being used by Goop to exploit women for its own financial gain. Goop needs to stop its misleading profits-over-people marketing immediately," TINA executive director Bonnie Patten said in a statement.
It's fair to say GOOP hedges bets in a lot of its copy. For instance, the Black Rose Bar soap is a "breakout fighter" that will give you "radiant skin." Those claims of course have no substantial proof, but are par for the course in the world of facial cleansers. Generally, when GOOP prints more outlandish claims-like that "Earthing" (aka walking around barefoot) can cure insomnia and arthritis-it's often through Q&A's with doctors and other experts.
GOOP has addressed criticisms about claims before, most recently when Dr. Jennifer Gunter said sleeping with GOOP's jade yoni egg inside the vagina-which was suggested on the site by Shiva Rose-could cause Toxic Shock Syndrome. "As women, we chafe at the idea that we are not intelligent enough to read something and take what serves us, and leave what does not," wrote GOOP. "That's why we do unfiltered Q&As, so you can hear directly from doctors; we see no reason to interpret or influence what they're saying, to tell you what to think." In that same article, they also published a response from Dr. Steven Gundry, who spent a lot of time critiquing Dr. Gunter's use of the "F-bomb."
TINA is urging the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force to "commence an investigation into the marketing claims being made by Goop and take appropriate enforcement action." But until then, maybe keep taking everything GOOP says with a grain of (pink Himalayan) salt.
You Might Also Like
