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NAD asks Alcon to discontinue certain contact lens advertising claims

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Following a challenge from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., the National Advertising Division, an investigative unit under the Council of Better Business Bureaus, has recommended that Alcon discontinue certain superiority claims for its Air Optix Contact Lenses.

The NAD said in a press release that it also considered whether the advertising implied that Air Optix contact lenses offer superior vision and comfort when compared to other brands.

The claims at issue include:

• Air Optix Aqua lenses provide “superior surface deposit resistance.”
• Air Optix Aqua lenses possess “unique plasma surface technology for superior deposit resistance.”
• “Acuvue Oasys contact lenses attract up to 31 times more lipid deposits.”
• “Only Air Optix brand contact lenses have a unique surface technology that’s proven to … resist deposits better than other available 2-week or monthly replacement silicone hydrogel lenses.”
• Air Optix Aqua lenses “resists lipids and deposits.”
• “Superior surface with moisture and consistent comfort.”

The NAD wanted to determine whether Alcon could support claims that its Air Optix Aqua contact lenses were superior in resisting deposits of lipids and better at resisting the absorption of lipids into the matrix of the lens, according to the press release.

JJVC believed that the testing on which Alcon based its superior deposition-resistance claims did not measure deposits on the contact lenses surface.

Alcon issued a statement in response: “We disagree that our promotional claims for Air Optix Aqua contact lenses intended to convey a message that our lenses provide superior surface deposit resistance over Acuvue Oasys brand contact lenses.

“We believe our materials accurately advertised the outstanding lipid deposit resistance of Air Optix Aqua, which is based on the results of scientific research. Despite these disagreements, Alcon respects the self-regulatory process and will take NAD’s recommendations into account in future promotional materials.”