National Advertising Division Recommends Naked & Thriving Discontinue Certain Claims

BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division, as part of its routine monitoring program, recommended that Naked & Thriving Inc. discontinue certain claims in the Bare Beauty Babes blog and on social media.

The Bare Beauty Babes blog and an Instagram post contained an article authored by dermatologist Dr. Gabriela Vee – “Does Hyaluronic Acid Help to Fight Signs of Aging? I’ve Tested Hundreds of Hyaluronic Acid Serums – Here are 5 That Actually Work” – with the claim “Peter Thomas Roth Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Serum – This product has a very high amount of hyaluronic acid [75%] in addition to silk proteins, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, and silicon to increase moisture levels and soften skin.”

The Bare Beauty Babes blog is owned and sponsored by Naked & Thriving, a family-owned skincare company. Naked & Thriving works with an agency that runs the Bare Beauty Babes blog.

NAD recommended that Naked & Thriving discontinue the challenged expert endorsements and that it ensure that expert endorsers have the required expertise and have evaluated the products based on their expertise.

In so finding, NAD noted that:

• There was no evidence in the record related to the qualifications or expertise of the endorser, Dr. Vee;
• The record was silent as to the criteria used to rate or rank the products in the category and whether the endorser reviewed and ranked all products in the category (the posts claim that “dozens” or “hundreds” of products were tested); and
• The advertiser did not provide support that Dr. Vee exercised the expertise of a dermatologist in evaluating the products.

NAD further recommended that Naked & Thriving’s endorsers disclose their connection to the Naked & Thriving brand when that connection is not reasonably communicated by the context of the post.

During the inquiry, Naked & Thriving voluntarily modified the Bare Beauty Babes website to include the connection to Naked & Thriving by adding a disclosure on the top of the website. Also, the website no longer promotes or recommends products, but covers healthy living, beauty, and self-care topics. NAD appreciated the changes and will treat those modifications, for compliance purposes, as though NAD recommended the modifications and the advertiser agreed to comply.

In its advertiser statement, Naked & Thriving stated that it “agrees to comply with NAD’s recommendations” although it “disagrees with certain aspects of NAD’s decision.”