Juice Plus

Juice Plus (aka NSA Juice Plus) is yet another health product by a network marketing or multi level marketing company containing fruit and vegetable extracts as well as vitamins. Juice Plus has been around since 1993 and the company that made Juice Plus has made claims that have caused strings of controversies.

Juice Plus has been marketed to suggest that they can provide benefits such as reducing oxidative stress and promoting cardiovascular health. However, critics have argued that there is not scientific proof that Juice Plus offers any significant benefits. Critics say that deceptive claims have been used in Juice Plus' marketing  materials.

Juice Plus Scam?

Juice Plus' False advertising (Consumer Reports 2005)

According to Consumer Reports, in 2005, National Safety Associates (the company that makes Juice Plus) used advertising featuring Dr. William Sears, which implied that Juice Plus Gummies are low in sugar and a nutritional alternative to fruits and vegetables. This claim resulted in consumer complaints to the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division (NAD). The BBB issued a complaint that NSA's claims were misleading, and as a result, NSA promised to modify its ads and stop calling Gummies “the next best thing to fruits and vegetables”. However, as of 2007, the Juice Plus homepage still advertises that the products are “the next best thing to fruits and vegetables”, though not specifically in reference to the Gummies.

Unreliable testimonials of Juice Plus' spoke person - OJ Simpson

University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter and MLMWatch also commented on the unreliability of Juice Plus testimonials provided by former professional athlete O.J. Simpson, who was tried and acquitted for the June 12, 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

OJ Simpson signed a multi-year six-figure contract with NSA (make of Juice Plus) in January 1994 and became an official celebrity endorser of Juice Plus. In March 1994, shortly before the murders took place, O.J. Simpson was videotaped telling 4,000 Juice Plus distributors at a sales meeting that the product had cured his arthritis, improved his golf game, and freed him from using anti-arthritic drugs.

However, during his criminal trial in 1995 and civil trial in 1997 (and in his 2007 book If I Did It) OJ Simpson claimed that he was too incapacitated by arthritis to have committed the murders and that he had continued to take a variety of potent anti-inflammatory drugs, including sulfasalazine and Motrin. After controversy surrounding Simpson erupted, NSA cancelled his endorsement contract and stopped using the Simpson videotape to promote Juice Plus.

Read about other doubts on the benefits of Juice Plus and whether Juice Plus is a scam here.