Dannon called Activia 'clinically proven' — the FTC made it pay $21M to 39 states

Dannon sold yogurt as medicine-in-a-cup. Activia was 'clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks'; DanActive was 'clinically proven to help strengthen your body's defenses' and help prevent colds and flu. Jamie Lee Curtis fronted the TV campaign, and the claims ran across television, packaging, the internet and print. Behind the promises, the FTC found, the science was not there.

On 15 December 2010 Dannon agreed to pay $21 million to settle parallel investigations by 39 state attorneys general, led by Oregon and Tennessee, and accepted an FTC consent order approved 5–0. The Commission charged that the 'clinically proven' claims were false: the probiotic evidence fell short, and cold-and-flu protection is a claim only an FDA-approved product may make. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz: 'These types of misleading claims are enough to give consumers indigestion.'

The order rewrote the brand's language: no cold or flu claims without FDA approval, and any regularity claim had to say the benefit needs three daily servings, not one. Future violations cost $16,000 each. Dannon kept the products; it lost the claims that had sold them.