The National Advertising Division (NAD) has delivered a mixed verdict in a row over hair-loss ads, telling Hims & Hers Health to change certain claims while dismissing other challenges brought by Kenvue.
Telehealth company Hims & Hers competes with Kenvue, a consumer health business that spun out of Johnson & Johnson in 2023, in the market for hair-loss and hair-regrowth treatments. Kenvue took issue with certain Hims & Hers’ claims about hair treatments, leading it to file a challenge with BBB National Programs’ self-regulatory body, the NAD.
Hims & Hers’ claims that its ingredients are “doctor-trusted” and “dermatologist-recommended” were among the ad copy challenged by Kenvue. The telehealth company gave the NAD the results of a survey of 250 independent dermatologists to support its claims.
However, while the NAD accepted that the survey could support certain carefully qualified claims about the level of dermatologist trust, the self-regulatory body found the evidence is a poor fit for some of Hims & Hers’ statements.
The NAD recommended that Hims & Hers modify its “doctor-trusted ingredients” claims to clearly and conspicuously disclose the relevant survey results. Similarly, the division took issue with the evidence behind the claim “Hims Hair Hybrids contain a combination of dermatologist-recommended prescription ingredients.” The NAD recommended that Hims & Hers stop making the claim.
Hims & Hers has a reasonable basis for its claim that “finasteride is doctor trusted to give even better results when paired with minoxidil, which helps to kickstart regrowth,” the NAD found. Yet, while the NAD found a basis for the idea that finasteride provides better results when paired with minoxidil than when used alone, it ruled that the “doctor trusted” claim is unsupported and recommended it be changed.
Another set of claims centered on safety and side effects. Hims & Hers modified claims about the safety of topical finasteride, but the NAD called for further changes, including to avoid conveying the message that the Hims Spray and Serum have been found safe in clinical studies. Specific side-effect disclosures to qualify benefit or safety claims should be clear, conspicuous and close to the claim, the NAD said.
Hims & Hers permanently removed several efficacy, side-effect and doctor-trusted claims from its legacy Hers Spray webpages during the NAD proceeding. For compliance purposes, the division treated the deleted claims as if it had recommended discontinuation. In its advertiser statement, Hims & Hers said it “voluntarily agrees to comply with NAD's recommendations.”
The ad claim row covers a growth opportunity. Kenvue cited increases in hair regrowth products as a driver of performance at its skin health and beauty segment in the second quarter. Hims & Hers' offerings, such as its hair-loss treatments for men and women, took three to four years to “eclipse $100 million in annual revenue,” Andrew Dudum, the company’s founder and CEO, said on an earnings call in February.