Geritol sold tiredness as iron-poor blood — and ignored the FTC for years

Geritol's advertising told tired Americans that fatigue, lost strength and irritability meant 'iron-poor blood' — and that Geritol would make them feel stronger fast, in seven days. The FTC found the claim false and misleading: those symptoms are common to dozens of conditions, and only a small minority of tired people have the iron deficiency Geritol treats. In 1965 the Commission ordered the ads to say so — an early use of mandatory disclosure.

The Sixth Circuit enforced the order in 1967, holding that concealing Geritol's uselessness for most tired people was a material deception. J.B. Williams and its agency, Parkson, then kept advertising in violation of the order. The government sued in 1970 on eleven counts, and in January 1973 a federal judge found flagrant violations and fined the company and the agency $812,000 — the largest FTC-related penalty of its kind to that point.

The case built two pillars of advertising law: an advertiser must disclose the negative fact that defeats its claim, and a cease-and-desist order is not a suggestion. The agency that wrote the ads was fined beside the brand.