Ab Circle Pro False Advertisement

The Ab Circle Pro is a workout device that is often advertised on the television, featuring a number of different promises made to consumers. One of the promises made in the commercials is that in only three minutes of doing the Ab Circle Pro, it would equivalent to the person doing 100 sit ups. This statement, according to the Federal Trade Commission, is absolute fiction. The Federal Trade Commission accused the marketers of the exercise machine of deceiving consumers and blatantly lying in their advertisements for the product. The marketers have since agreed to pay millions of dollars, a total of around $25 million, to refund the consumer who spent hundreds of dollars and did not see the results they were expecting due to the deception. The Federal Trade Commission, over the past few years, has truly been cracking down on overhyped claims of health in commercials for various different products. They want to eliminate deception in these advertisements to ensure consumers know exactly what they are getting and what it can and simply cannot do.

The current settlement with Ab Circle Pro, in which its marketers will pay off millions in refunds, is one of the biggest settlements that have ever taken place for any type of exercising device. The director for the Federal Trade Commission’s bureau of consumer protection, David Vladeck, says that he is hoping for marketers to start getting the message and understands that false advertising and deception in advertisements is not going to be tolerated. He wants these marketers to realize that if they choose to be deceptive, there will be consequences for their actions. In fact, Vladeck has said, “The FTC reminds marketers that they should think twice before promising a silver-bullet solution to a health problem, whether it involves losing weight or curing cancer.” He also said, “Weight loss is hard work and telling consumers otherwise is deceptive.”

When the Federal Trade Commission first filed the complaint against Ab Circle Pro, they claimed that the marketers basically advertised through infomercials within the span of a year, between 2009 and 2010, claiming that consumers could exercise on the machine for only three minutes a day and that by doing so, they would be able to lose a total of 10 pounds within half a month or just two weeks. The infomercial even featured a celebrity, Jennifer Nicole Lee, who made claims of losing nearly 100 pounds with the use of this exercising device. With the settlement in place, the defendants will not be able to make the claims about the Ab Circle Pro causing people to lose weight at such rapid speed anymore.