misleading advertising? August 1, 2012
Posted by Bradley in : consumers, truth , trackbackI haven’t seen one 5 hour energy advert that isn’t really irritating. The latest I have seen begins with the statement that they asked over 3000 doctors to review 5 hour energy. It then goes on to say “and what they said is amazing” (seems to imply the over 3000 said something amazing). The ad then says that over 73% of those who reviewed 5 hour energy said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements (note that the script refers to “a” supplement, not to the 5 hour energy product itself). The ad emphasizes the 73% figure (which appears prominently on the screen) but carefully doesn’t state that the 73% is a percentage of the (over) 3000 doctors. And the ad does not state how many doctors actually reviewed the product. And what the reviewing doctors were prepared to sign on to is pretty lame. But the ad then goes on to use the 3000 number again at the end (ask your doctor, we already asked 3000), reinforcing the impression that lots of doctors approved of the product. This sort of carefully constructed message, designed to give a very different impression from the one that the actual words used, carefully parsed, give should, I think, be treated as problematic in law.
Comments»
Totally agree. 5 hr Energy is a class action waiting to happen. I would NEVER invest in that company.
I hate this commercial & woman.
I always see this 5 hour energy drink the size of a little eye dropper in gas stations.
Then I see this smug woman on TV acting over confident and cocky about how this crappy little drink is practically recommended by 3,000 doctors and its sooo amazing and shes better then you.
OMG so irritating I want to yell and say shut up every time I see this commercial….
I’ve noticed the same misleading content, this needs to be investigated. Wouldn’t touch the stuff. 9 million uses per week is a pretty big number!
3000 Doctors is so misleading and so is the 73%….Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they got through to talk to 50% of the 3K, then only 50% of those actually agreed to review, that puts the number at only 750 doctors. Not as impressive as 3000.
73% of 750 is only 547. So the actual % of 3000 doctors that recommended a low calorie supplement is 18%. Granted my stats are estimates, but if they won’t reveal the actual number of doctors reviewing the data, then we can only speculate…..
If they are going to use the 3000 number then they should use the 18% number; apples to apples.
If they want to use the 73% figure then they need to use 750 doctors number. Just my 2 cents… sparkyinfla