When I marketed homes for sale I thought it was tough - with so many words and phrases we couldn't use for fear of violating a Fair Housing or Americans with Disabilities rule. But marketing natural health is even more difficult.
Even while your product might greatly reduce the incidence of high blood pressure, you aren't allowed to mention high blood pressure.
So what can you do? You can talk about relaxing artery walls and preventing blood platelets from becoming sticky. You can use testimonials from people who feel good after using your product. You can cite scientific studies that show some ingredient in your product has been shown effective in lowering blood pressure.
In short - you can use long copy to prove your point without ever actually stating your point.
While this practice does discourage the old-time "snake oil salesman" from peddling his wares, I personally think it's a disservice to the American public.
So many pharmaceutical drugs are dangerous beyond belief - and yet are advertised 24 hours a day on our televisions, radios, the internet, and in print publications. Worse, most of those drugs are only band-aids to cover up symptoms.
They aren't doing anything to actually CURE the underlying disease or to remove the cause of that ailment.
Sadly, this isn't apt to change, at least not in the near future. Our legislation and funds allocation is influenced by lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry, and (in my opinion) that industry wants no part of health - natural or otherwise. There's no money in health - the money is in illness.
And as for proving the benefits of natural health products? The small studies done by individual researchers are discounted as too small or not carefully controlled, or whatever excuse will do. Unless some individual with huge dollars and an interest in natural cures steps forward, large studies won't be conducted.
Why? Because there is simply no money in the results.
For instance, if a study proved that mangosteen juice cured a specific kind of cancer, who would benefit? Far too many people. Everyone who produced and bottled the juice would benefit, because you can't patent a fruit!
Thus, none of the pharmaceutical companies, nor the Federal Government, will ever put money into learning if mangosteen or any other juice will cure any disease.
For now, natural health enthusiasts with real cures will just have to live with the regulations. They'll have to continue producing long copy to "walk all the way around the barn" to explain the benefits of their products. The good thing is, the people who believe in and want to experience natural health will look forward to reading it.
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