Pom Wonderful: health claims row

Pom Wonderful: health claims row

POM Wonderful, a US-based maker of pomegranate juice drinks, will still continue to advertise the health benefits of its products despite a ruling against it from a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) judge.

The drinks company had previously been blocked by an FTC judge from advertising the health claims of its juices, which include reducing the chances of heart disease and erectile dysfunction.

Chief administrative law judge Michael Chappell ruled POM Wonderful deceptively advertised its products and ordered all future packaging claims to be backed up by scientific trials, such as the ones needed for pharmaceutical drugs.

In a new series of ads for the US market though, the company fights the claims with the slogan “FTC v. POM - You be the judge."

"You may have heard that the Federal Trade Commission sued POM Wonderful for false advertising on grounds science did not support POM's health claims but what you as a consumer of POM need to know is that the FTC judge agreed that POM Wonderful products do provide significant health benefits," reads a segment of the new campaign on www.pomtruth.com.