LOrealWho doesn’t want young-acting skin?  We’re not talking about the way skin acted in the zits-on-picture-day years, but rather the dewy glow of innocence – the Code of Youth.

L’Oréal USA, Inc. addressed our anti-aging desires in a popular line of ads for Lancôme Génifique and L’Oréal Paris Youth Code skincare products.  But this week the company settled with the FTC on deceptive advertising grounds.  According to the complaint, L’Oréal made false and unsubstantiated claims about Génifique and Youth Code, overstating the products’ anti-aging benefits which allegedly involved targeting users’ genes and stimulating the production of youth proteins.

Specifically, one of the ads at issue claimed that Génifique products were “clinically proven” to boost genes’ activity and stimulate the production of youth proteins that would cause “visibly younger skin in just 7 days,” and would provide results to specific percentages of users.

In a related vein, ads for L’Oréal Paris Youth Code heralded  the “new era of skincare: gene science” and told consumers that they could “crack the code to younger acting skin.”

Sign us up for that era. 
Continue Reading FTC Tells L’Oréal that Youth Code Is Not Cracked