Do They Still Make Geritol

Geritol Sued Over 'Tired Blood'

Apr 21, 1970

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April 21, 1970

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The Federal Regime filed a $one‐one thousand thousand adapt yester day against the companies, that make and advertise Geritol charging that they violated Fed eral Trade Commission orders to stop deceptive advertizement.

The action in Federal Court hither came after more than ten years of commission in vestigations and orders chal lenging the claims of the J. B. Williams Company, Inc., that the syrup containing iron and various vitamins is an effec tive remedy for "that run‐down feeling."

Company Confident

Early in Dec, the case was finally referred to the Justice Department. Yesterday, United states Chaser Whit ney N Seymour Jr. an nounced that he would ask for $500,000 in penalties against the company and $500,000 against Parkson Advertising Agency, Inc., for eleven alleged violations of F.T.C. orders.

James H. Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the manufac turer said: "Electric current advert is non involved. Nosotros accept every confidence that the court will find no basis for these charges."

Merely the suit charges that some television commercials for Geritol and Femiron, a similar preparation for women, that the Government found of fensive were broadcast as late as last October, despite an F.T.C. society of Nov. 24, 1967, forbidding them.

At issue is Geritol's effec tiveness against "tired blood," which the company and its advertisements accept made into a part of everyday spoken language.

Anemia Disputed

The F.T.C. order prohibited Geritol from making any advertising "which repre sents straight or by implication that the preparation is a gen erally effective remedy for tiredness, loss of forcefulness, run down feeling, nervousness or irritability."

Many of the commercials show Ted Mack defining "tired blood" as iron deficiency anemia. The F.T.C. does not challenge Geritol'south or Fem Iron's effectiveness confronting that.

Only it asserts that the peachy bulk of people who experi ence tiredness symptoms do non suffer from iron deficiency anemia, and the F.T.C. wants Geritol to make that clear in its advertisements.

It has been trying to do this since 1962, when, after a three‐ yr investigation, the F.T.C. staff issued a complaint. On May 8, 1964, a commission ex aminer ruled that the J. B. Wil liams Company and its adver tising bureau had been making deceptive advertisements.

The commission unanimously issued a terminate and desist club on Sept. ‐28, 1965, and the United states Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, at Cincin nati, upheld the guild on Aug. 11, 1967.

The commission revised the order on Nov. 24, 1967, and, despite it, found in Dec, 1968, that the companies had not complied. On Jan. 31, 1969, they said that they would. But last year, the commission con tinued to accept exception to a phrase in television commer cials about "iron power," and sued when the company did non delete it.