‘Thosh Ion Shower’ – Fleecing the Gullible Public
Mangaluru: Like P T Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute, with the population explosion it looks like one is born every second in India! Some time back I had noticed ads on Facebook and elsewhere about a product called as “Thosh ion shower” which was supposed to do a lot of things including getting relief for ailments from asthma to a migraine! Intrigued by these claims I had mailed them but they did not respond. So, I filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India which is supposed to be a regulatory body for such and yesteryear they have come to the conclusion that the ads (given as attachments herein) are misleading. This is what PubMed ( http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes?page=3) had to say about it in 2003 or so:
Harold Nelson, MD, professor of medicine at National Jewish Medical Center in Denver,USA was so excited when he first heard of negative-ion generators 20 years ago that he went out and bought one to study among allergy and asthma patients.Unfortunately, the findings were “not terribly encouraging. We couldn’t demonstrate anything,” he tells WebMD. “I was disappointed. I had high expectations and they did not pan out, ” he says.
Their communication is as follows:
Re: CCC Recommendation – 1608-C.916 – Your complaint against the advertisement Thosh Ion Shower.
The complaint was considered by the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) at their meeting. The ASCI approached the advertiser for their response in addressing the grievances of the complainant. The Advertiser was offered an opportunity for Personal Hearing with the ASCI Secretariat. The advertiser representatives did not seek a personal hearing. The CCC also noted that no response was received from the advertiser prior to the due date for this complaint. The CCC viewed the website and the facebook advertisement. The advertiser did not provide any clinical evidence for the product efficacy.
In the absence of comments from the Advertiser, the CCC concluded that the claims, “Good news for those who are suffering from Asthma, Respiratory diseases and Breathing problems, Allergy, Migraine Insomnia, and those who are fed up of taking heavy medication and pills for the same. Now Negative Ion therapy has a solution”, were not substantiated, and are misleading by exaggeration. The website and facebook advertisement contravened Chapters I.1 and I.4 of the ASCI Code. The complaint was UPHELD-We advised the advertiser to withdraw or modify the said advertisement. If you continue to see the advertisement kindly bring the same to our notice.Thank you for having referred this complaint to us.
Assuring you of our services in the pursuit of Self-Regulation in Advertising.
Yours faithfully,
B. Noronha
Senior Executive – Complaints Processing
The Advertising Standards Council Of India.
I request you to kindly bring this to the notice of the public so that they could file complaints if they have purchased this device believing the ads.
Narendra Nayak
Convenor, Consumer’s Education Trust of Mangalore