Repeat After Me: You Can’t Make Stuff Up About Your Products

Online game maker Lumos Labs Inc. was the latest company to learn the hard way that if their ads brag about scientific studies that prove how great their product is, they must have the proof to support these claims. The San Francisco-based company agreed to pay $2 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission on charges of deceptively advertising its Lumosity “brain training” games. Loeb & Loeb partner David Mallen is quoted on the action, saying: “Brain games may be seem fun and simple but if advertisers are claiming specific cognitive benefits and claims such as protection from dementia or helping with ADHD, those are health-related benefits and must be supported by sound scientific evidence.”