Gwyneth Paltrows lifestyle site Goop is doing consumers a disservice with its health products, an advertising watchdog group says.
In a complaint sent to two California district attorneys this week, the nonprofit Truth in Advertising, also known as TINA, says it conducted an investigation into Goops inappropriate health claims and deceptive marketing tactics, and it is calling on the lawmakers to make the site stop.
The group says it found 50 instances of the site promoting products that can treat, cure, prevent, alleviate the symptoms of, or reduce the risk of developing a number of ailments, ranging from depression, anxiety, and insomnia, to infertility, uterine prolapse, and arthritis, just to name a few.
Among the various products the group mentions as carrying inappropriate health claims are the vaginal jade eggs that made headlines this summer. The site promoted inserting the eggs into a womans vagina to balance hormones and improve sexual experiences.
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, Truth in Advertising executive director Bonnie Patten said in a statement. Goop needs to stop its misleading profits-over-people marketing immediately.
The group originally sent the letter to Goop with a deadline to change its materials. TINA said it filed a complaint because Goop had made only limited changes, to its marketing.
In response to the official complaint, a spokesperson for Goop told E! News, While we believe that TINAs description of our interactions is misleading and their claims unsubstantiated and unfounded, we will continue to evaluate our products and our content and make those improvements that we believe are reasonable and necessary in the interests of our community of users.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-health-watchdog_us_599e9143e4b05710aa59de15
Previous articles from HuffPo: Goop Deletes Yet Another Strange Health Claim After Getting Fact-Checked By NASA
The site said energy-balancing body stickers were made from the same stuff as space suits.
Please Do Not Take Medical Advice From Goop
Were begging you, internet.
Excerpt:
hats more, the article attests that iodine supports your immune system in fending off invaders when its real purpose is to support the thyroid in the production of hormones.
Who might have suggested such a thing? Goops source is self-described medical medium, Anthony William. According to Williams website biography, he was born with the unique ability to converse with a high-level spirit who provides him with extraordinarily accurate health information thats often far ahead of its time.
In other words, a ghost gives him tips on wellbeing. A GHOST.
NY Times: A Doctor Gives Gwyneth Paltrows Goop an Examination (this article is great BTW)
Excerpts:
One that sent the doctor to her blog earlier this year was the suggestion in a Goop story that women insert jade eggs into their vaginas to improve their sex lives.
I read the post on Goop, and all I can tell you is it is the biggest load of garbage I have read on your site since vaginal steaming, Dr. Gunter, 51, wrote on her personal blog, which carries the tagline Wielding the Lasso of Truth.
Another Goop story that said bra-wearing may increase the chance of breast cancer also irked Dr. Gunter. Its breast size that increases the risk of breast cancer, she wrote in retort.
What about another practice recommended by a doctor interviewed on Goop: cleansing the body with goats milk as a hedge against parasites?
Id just write it off as crazy except some people are going to follow this advice and waste a lot of money, Dr. Gunter wrote, adding a certain modifier before crazy.
Goop, which held the In Goop Health conference last month in Culver City, Calif., for acolytes who paid between $500 and $1,500 a ticket, had 1.8 million unique American visitors to its website in June, a 62 percent increase from the previous June, according to comScore, an analytics company.