#NeriumTruth Campaign Summary

UPDATE 9/28/23: Nearly four years after the FTC filed a lawsuit against Nerium/Neora accusing the company of, among other things, operating an illegal pyramid scheme, a federal court has found that the agency failed to provide enough evidence to support its claims and has entered a final judgment in favor of the company. The FTC has the option to appeal the decision, which followed a non-jury trial. Our original article follows.

In conjunction with Nerium’s “Get Real” conference (#NeriumGR) hosted in St. Louis last week, TINA.org launched its #NeriumTruth Twitter campaign. The goal of this social media advocacy initiative? To pressure the skin-care and brain supplement MLM to take down inappropriate health and income claims that litter the internet, and shed a light on the company’s questionable marketing practices during a time when current and potential distributors would be engaged on the social media platform (read more about the impetus for this campaign here).

Over the course of five days, TINA.org exposed about 30 examples of Nerium distributors making inappropriate health claims. Distributors asserting that Nerium products cure, treat, or prevent ailments ranging from eczema, to concussions, to Alzheimer’s. Check out a sampling of our tweets below (click the title to see the original tweet):

Additionally, TINA.org drew attention to inappropriate income claims made by top Nerium distributors. Some of our “Nerium Get Real!” tweets also included quotes from videos posted directly by the company on its official website:

TINA.org’s relentless activity grabbed the attention of Nerium, which urged several distributors whose illegal health claims were exposed to remove the posts in question:

After being tagged (along with the FTC) in every tweet, Nerium’s CEO Jeff Olson chimed in, retweeting the company’s response to TINA.org’s #NeriumTruth initiative.

While the company’s tweet (and CEO’s retweet) assert that “Nerium products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease,” the fact that twenty-three of the inappropriate health claims TINA.org shared last week are still live today indicates that the company’s self-proclaimed commitment to this standard appears to be lacking.

And while the company defended the income claims TINA.org brought to light by stating “It’s about opportunity, not guarantees,” linking to its confusing Income Declaration does not negate the numerous instances in which distributors and the company itself exaggerate the income potential for affiliates without properly disclosing the financial reality of a “career” with Nerium.

By the end of this campaign, eight of the health claim examples TINA.org shared had been removed, and Nerium’s compliance account (@NIcompliance) began following @TruthInAd. But inappropriate health and income claims that TINA.org previously documented are still living all over the internet (see our health and income claims databases). So harkening back to our campaign last week, it really is time for Nerium to Get Real! And that’s the true #NeriumTruth.