Airborne settlement nothing to sneeze at The company behind cold remedy Airborne has just been officially slapped on the wrist by the Federal Trade Commission. Mentioned in Mental Floss's list of shameless false-advertising schemes, the ads and packaging dubiously claimed that Airborne could somehow prevent you from catching a cold. Now, the FTC is ordering the company to pay consumers back for as many as six purchases each, at an estimated total cost of $30 million. If you bought Airborne between 2001 and 2008, you have until Sept. 15 to apply for a refund. This ruling comes after a class-action suit on the same subject was settled earlier this year for $23.5 million. In addition, the lying liars have to change all their packaging and marketing language. Let's look on the bright side: Changing the packaging is a great excuse to get rid of one tragic line in particular. "Created by a school teacher!" doesn't really scream "medically legitimate." —Posted by Rebecca Cullers

August 18, 2008 in Controversy, Cullers, Pharma | Permalink

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Next thing you know, consumers will be getting settlements from RJ Reynolds because they thought tobacco was harmless and from McDonald's because they thought Supersizing it could never contribute to obesity and heart disease.

Never thought Airborne could 'prevent' colds and I still use the product and stand by it when I need an immune system boost. Did anyone notice how fast those competitive products finessed the language on their radio promos? A well known talk radio host promos Zicam, but not the same way he used to. Way to let Airborne take all the heat Zicam!

BTW if you go to drugstore.com and search cold prevention, a slew of products come up, including Zicam.

Posted by: debbers | Aug 18, 2008 1:46:39 PM

Maybe next time they'll go with someone who plays a teacher on TV. Incidentally, our family feels that Zicam actually works, though it's hard to measure the effectiveness of something meant to reduce the severity of a condition. We can never truly know if it worked, only suspect.

Posted by: captain flummox | Aug 19, 2008 8:21:19 AM

Talk abour misdirected agression. People are so thrilled to see this small company get it stuck to them. They don't realize that Big Pharma is trying to (and is) getting away with a lot more because of lobbyists and lawyers.

Airborne has recently been bought, but the brand was created grassroots by a schoolteacher. The claim was pretty innocently created by that same schoolteacher. Unfortunately, her lack of experience when it came to the legality of claims (as in 'helps cure colds') is what they're paying for now.

What it does do, is help your immune system, which is what prevents colds. That legalese miswording by a schoolteacher is what's really ended up costing 30 million.

Posted by: Mike | Aug 19, 2008 1:00:20 PM

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