Solar D Sunscreen

UPDATE 2/8/17: NAD closed its investigation of Solar D after the company said it was willing to participate in its process and after finding that the company’s current marketing does not contain the claims that were subject to the NAD inquiry.

Solar D claims that its sunscreen is specially formulated to let the sun’s good vitamin D-producing rays in and keep the sun’s bad skin cancer-causing rays out, thus making it “the healthier choice when protecting yourself from the sun’s harmful rays.”

But when The National Advertising Division (NAD) is the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. challenged this statement and others, citing concern over whether Solar D was exaggerating the potential vitamin D benefits of its product, the company chose not to participate in the review process, declining to provide substantiation for “the healthier choice” claim. Nor did it provide substantiation for these statements that NAD said appeared on social media, on the company’s website, as well as in a marketing campaign:

• “Vitamin D helps strong healthy bones … Solar D permits some of the light that our bodies use to make vitamin D … Solar-D helps prevent skin cancer.”
• “The hot new sunscreen that gives skin instant vitamin D.”
• “Using Solar D instead of traditional formulas in the same SPF allows up to 50 percent more vitamin D production …”

NAD said it had referred the advertising claims to federal regulators.

Find more of our coverage on sunscreen here.