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It's A Fraud!!!
Filed under: Legal Matters
Airborne is shit!!!! The company has just settled a class action lawsuit for $23 million!!!!
"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," David Schardt, a nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a written statement this week. "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."
We feel lied to!!!!!
The herbal supplement of vitamins and minz was created back in 1999 with the intent of helping to fight off colds.
It was invented by Victoria Knight-McDowell, a second-grade teacher who according to the product's site, "studied the benefits herbal therapies used in Eastern Medicine." The company also claimed it "boosts the immune system with seven herbal extracts and a proprietary blend of vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids and antioxidants."
Back in March 2006, after an ABC News report revealed that the company's clinical trials were not conducted by doctors or even scientists, Airborne changed their advertising campaign when a plaintiff filed suit against them.
Turns out the "clinical trials" were just conducted by two random individuals!
Shortly after, advertisements for Airborne stopped mentioning the clinical studies and the cold-curing claims. Instead, Airborne began advertising itself as helping to boost the body's immune systems.
Airborne will now be fighting off cash collectors for a total of $23.3 million to settle the class-action lawsuit brought against them.
Those suing claim the company provided false advertising since it could not be proven that Airborne actually helps prevent colds.
Then in late 2006 the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit advocacy group, joined the suit as co-counsel against Airborne. Later in 2007 the FTC and some attorney generals began investigating the cold-preventing claims as well.
The CSPI said the Airborne company will have to refund money to consumers who bought its product, and it will pay for advertisements in large publications with instructions on how to get refunded.
To learn more information about how to receive a refund if you've purchased Airborne, CLICK HERE.
This sucks! We used to take Airborne all the time!
what about all those spin offs from airborne, do they go away as well?? hmm….sounds like the big boys wanted a little people to GO AWAY. Jeeze this aint right~~
the stuff works for my family!
Damm, it worked for me. I must not be clinical.
Well DUH!
Airborne works for me and for my friends.
I looked at the ingredients for this product and it can help you lesson the time of colds. What you need to ask yourself is this. Why is it everytime a natural product does well on the market it gets scrutinized to death. Hmm…makes me wonder if the multi billion dollar pharmacutical industry has something to do with it??? Don't cut into their profits !!!
no shit…it's just a multivitamin
Whatever. If they are still selling it I'm still buying it. I haven't been sick in over 3 years because of this. I drink one the second I feel a cold coming on and a day later I am 110% better.
OLD NEWS PEREZ!!!!!!!!!!! You can do better than that!
that is just the government trying to cover it's on back because all "they" preach about is that the only things to cure anything are prescribed FDA approved medications….whereas, that's probably just the opposite…all prescribed drugs come with a cost, not to mention a long list of side affects…the truth is that natural remedies can cure just about anything, but the government pays a nice penny to come that all under wraps by making it seem "hippy" or whatever
It's always worked for me and before I used to get colds very bad. I swear by the stuff I've only had to use it for a day then I would wake up feeling great. Same for my family and friends. It probably doesn't work as good on people who r super fat and really dirty that's why it doesn't work for u idiots!
They're getting sued for not conducting proper clinical trials to prove that their product works, not because it actually doesnt. I've been saying all along that airborne is way over priced bc of their fancy marketing, but large doses of vitamin c and certain herbs are proven effective. It just depends on whether you want to pay $7 for a couple of flimsy packets or $4 for big bottle of Vitamin c and echinacea. I wonder why they didn't just conduct a proper trial….
no way perez! I totally disagree! I love the stuff and it tastes good and has kept me healthy! It's the only disolvable vitamin that tastes good. I hope they dont stop making it
this is so retarded. i suppose all of us who have taken tylenol, midol, sleeping pills, diet pills etc that didn't work should all file a class action law suit against the makers of these drugs. not everything works for everyone. but airborne works for my 2 kids and i will give it to them anytime there's an outbreak of the flu or a cold.
I've used it for the past year and I haven't been sick once despite tons of sick people around me. I think it works however it might be similar to the Placebo pills they give sick people. Placebos have no medicine in them whatsoever and are prescribed by some doctors. The Placebo effect is the idea that the sham medication can sometimes improve a patient's condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful. Maybe this is why I haven't got sick…I thought the Airborne was ligit and thus my expectations were optimistic and my health stayed at its prime!
I love Airborne I take it every time I feel like I am getting sick and it works I do not care what people say …and no its not in my head…my kids use it also and my 7 yr old has not gotten sick this whole year when all the other kids in her class have. Perez you need to came back to your hometown MIA
I never took this to ward off colds, but it is one HELL of a hangover cure! Perhaps a new marketing strategy is in order.
This stuff is awesome!! I use it all the time when I feel a cold coming on. I haven't had a single cold all year. I am used to having several colds a year. I got home from vacation last Saturday and from the temp change I woke up with a runny nose and I was getting stuffed up. I took 3 Airbornes and I woke up Monday morning feeling great. No cold!! I hope they don't take this off the shelves because then I will have to stock up. You know what may work for 1 person may not work for another. People are way too "sue happy" these days. Get jobs people!
It has been scientifically documented in several clinical studies that the “Placebo Effect” can produce the same results as those who took actual medication during controlled experiments. As long I was convinced that the medication worked, my feeble brain would take the wheel from there on in and speed my recovery. If some dumbass didn’t spill the beans, rock the boat, upset the apple cart, or feel the need to rat, just think how many millions of people would be feeling relief from their lousy cold symptoms today. It would have been a simple case of mind over matter. You could cure the flu with stinking M&M’s if people had the notion in the back of their empty skulls that it actually worked and believed it to be true. New Rochelle Neil categorically states “Thanks to the royal swamp-hole who ruined it for working slobs like me who needed some hope that something might help me feel better and ratting out a poor school teacher who probably had to deal with a bunch of snot-nosed little bastards while scraping up a living on a teachers salary. They can all go straight to hell on seatless flaming tricycles."
-NewRo Neil
Damn it!! I guess everything I thought was helping me was psychological.
FUCK.
Airborne does what the diet should be doing but unfortunately the nutrition value of our foods is so far down. Our daily vitamin intake is no longer supplied by the foods we eat so there is a chance that airborne made you feel better.
I am going to keep taking it.
You lemmings. Big drug companies will tell you anything to keep you from buying vitamins and preventative supplements. They want you to be sick, to go to the doctor and buy their over priced drugs. Years ago they even tried to make Vitamin C prescription only. Don't fall for their crap. Vitamin C is water soluable and does go through your system, but the benefits are amazing.
Well duh.
when i used airborne…within the next few day i got the flu and mono
This is so unfair. Airborne is no worse (and probably more effective) than hundreds, maybe thousands of poisonous, harmful pharmaceutical drugs that are rushed to market in this country. At least Airborne is harmless, whereas many of the drugs the FDA approves later turn out to be deadly and have to be taken off the market. Educate yourselves, people: western medicine is a big scam.
Not to mention the fact that it tastes disgusting!!!!
Thanks for including the link to file a claim against Airborne. I filled out the form, and should get my money back from the Airborne I purchased!
I still say it works ! About a month ago ..my brother got a terrible flu which then jumped to me and all of his co workers! It was very contagious! My boyfriend acted like our nurse for a week streight and he just keep taking airborn. and he never once got sick! So i still think it works !
Vitamin C isn't proven to do anything for a cold. "Lessens the severity?" "Prevents one from coming on?" That kind of advertising is almost necessarily going to be fraudulent. How can you attribute something *not* happening to *anything*? "OMG! I masturbated and didn't get the flu! It's the magic bullet!" See? And how do you know how severe a cold would have otherwise been? The cold virus constantly mutates and that's why you can't prevent it– your immune system is never quite ready for it before it gets to your body. Smallpocks? Doesn't mutate– once you're immune, you're immune. The point is a cold can affect you a bit differently every time because of a number of different factors.
And YES they most definitely should be sued for false advertising and basically running a fraud. Don't defend companies that deceive and lie to their customer base just because you think they ought to have known better than believe something they're being told. I should just know that medicine or something being marketed as medicine doesn't work? WTF? So if I buy some Tylenol that is nothing but chalk I should have known better than to believe what is on the label?
This is why we have consumer rights laws– this, right here, this is THE epitome consumer rights violations. Sure there are worse ones, but this is basic and just the prime example. Yes, it sucks that people who use it and swear by it will be without their placebo– but I have some little brown pills that my bunny makes for me and they make me more confident and stave off cancer and I'll sell you some.
How crappy is this?
Emergen-C all the way.
Thought you'd like to know since you mentioned this in class the other day.
I take Emergen-C and it seems to work.
Yeah, Shar! You go! I hate western medicine! I refused vaccinations when I was a kid and I'm doing fine– of course I walk sort of funny because I got polio and my face is scarred from the smallpox outbreak. Antibiotics are for brainwashed morons, too– of course my sister died of an abscessed tooth… but it's not like "medicine" would have worked any better than the dried snake liver or that bundle of smoking twigs.
Thought you'd like to know since I think you take this.
I like Emergen-C.
Re: ZicamWorksBest.. – #198
Sorry to hear it, but your Grandmother got so sick because she's 89 YEARS OLD, not because she took Airborne. It's a well-known fact that common viruses can be much more severe for old folks, and can lead to pneumonia and hospitalization.
Are you a spokesman for Zicam, or are you really that stoopid???
If you are looking for something that does what Airborne "claims" it does….then you should buy Emergen-C….it comes in tons of different flavors, and it works AWESOME. No gimmicks. Emergen-C is the bomb!
Well taking extra vitamins does help your body feel more energized and prepare it to fight off colds so I dont see how it is a total fraud!
Try Cold-FX instead…it works…I know!!!
its all about the placebo effect
Geeze…People will fall for anything! There are NO cures for anything caused by a virus PERIOD. Bacteria can be killed by anti-biotics, generally, but illness caused by a virus has to be suffered due to the inability to kill viruses… If we could kill a virus, there would be a cure for HIV…..
I bought this product once when I had a bad cold. I really hoped for it to work, but it didn't do anything for me. I thought that maybe it was just me. There are a lot of other great herbal products out there that do work (and have been scientifically proven to work), but it sucks that companies such as Airborne are harming the future of the entire herbal market.
For the longest time I used to think this stuff was crap, but just recently my roomates (3 of them) all had bronchitis, so I decided to give it a try, and it actually worked. The thing is you have to take it EVERY 3 HOURS, or it really doesn't do anything. Most people take it like once a day and wonder why it doesn't work. I didn't change anything else, but I took AirBorne, and I'm convinced that's why I didn't get sick, since I alllwayyys get sick when other people are.
I honestly feel that they lost the suit because they misinformed the public. How can you say something like this will be beneficial without doing a clinical trial with a scientist or a doctor?
Most likely the studies were conducted by school teachers. Very very lame.
First off if you thought it was anything more then a vitamin you are a putz. I don't are what they say it helps you because it's an all natural vitamin. Go find something else to bitch about.
Take Emergen-C…..it tastes better anyway
D'uh.
I hear putting neosporin around your nostrils is more effective than taking this crap. Go with that next time you're on a plane or something.
Took it once a few years ago and thought it sucked.
Airborne is way OVERPRICED! But it is a convenient way to get those vitamins and herbs. The government doesn't want you healthy. They want you on prescriptions drugs. Airborne is at fault if it made those claims. But, I will continue to take it, because it works.
GOSH YOU PEOPLE ARE ANNOYING ON HERE!!!
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EVERYONE KNOWS IT WAS A FRICKIN' VITAMIN YOU ASSHOLES POSTING — THE FACT IS THAT THE COMPANY SAID IT WAS PREVENTING A COLD AND THAT'S WHERE THE LAWSUIT CAME IN. WHY IS EVERYONE SAYING, "OHH STUPID IDIOTS DON'T KNOW WHAT'S IN IT" THE LAWSUIT IS DIRECTED TOWARDS FALSE ADVERTISEMENT SO SHUT THE FUCK UP!
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I figured it didn't work when I saw the, "Created by a School Teacher!" HOw would someone w/ no medical or scientific training be able to create something that does this? I'm glad I never bought into it.
You took that shit? Gawd, you're a fat, gullible, dumb fuck!
You should drink a gallon of anti-freeze today. That will cure your fatness and no sweating required.
Love,
Homer
perez! get cold fx (from canada). same idea but it works!
I think it works.
i love airborne, it totally works! i'm going to stock up!
Thank you for the information, best regards, glenn.
Eh, I'll still take it. The placebo effect alone has some benefit, and it's a nice way to get some vitamins into my otherwise shitty diet.
what the hell!!!?? i just bought some yesterday…obviously…ugh!
It's just vitamins - always has been. YES - there are benefits. They just made a mistake in how they marketed.
I will still use this product. Funny, everytime i DON'T take it when I fly, I do get sick
I never thought it cured colds or prevented, just helped boost your immune system. From the very beginning I knew it was just abunch of vitamins mashed up that you could make yourself if you felt like it. This was probably brought on by a pharmecutical company that doesnt like the competition.
this is awful, i just bought 2 bottles on friday to fight off a cold i felt coming on, i'm pissed, thanks for the info. perez you rock!
since when are vitamins and minerals BAD for you? anytime you give the bodywhat it nedds you strengthen the immune sysytem. GET REAL people. Pharmaceutical companies don't want you to be healthy with cheap and easy things (airborne, etc.). How would THEY make their money? Use your heads, I am going to get another Airborne, emergenC now. COMMON SENSE
It totally works for me. You're suppose to take it at the first sign of any cold or flu symptom. Probably some big pharma company losing money to Airborne. I just bought some and will continue to use it!
DUH! Of course that shit doesn't work. If you believed that prevented colds, you deserved to lose your money! It also tastes absolutely horrific.
I feel so much more in the know since I've been reading you. **sigh**
Since when are vitamins and minerals BAD for you? anytime you give the bod ywhat it needs you strengthen the immune sysytem. GET REAL people. Pharmaceutical companies don't want you to be healthy with cheap and easy things (airborne, etc.). How would THEY make their money? Use your heads, I am going to get another Airborne, emergenC now. COMMON SENSE
I have used Airborne many many many times and it seems to have always worked. And I have 2 kids who are ALWAYS sick, but not I. So I stand by it, it works,tastes awful!
All medications are placebos.
We just buy into the pharmaceutical crap because of so-called documented research. A small reaction here, a result there, and it becomes reality.
"It must work!" "It's for real!" "They've got proof!"
In all or almost all research of this nature, placebo groups are used. It's funny how almost no attention is paid to those with positive results from placebo groups. Instead, the companies focus attention on their product/s.
The same pharmaceutical companies scoff at more natural/holistic alternatives, which older civilizations have relied on for centuries, and still rely on today, with positive results.
Unfortunately, we haven't evolved to the point where we can use our own minds to heal what ails us, or prevent it all together. So, we rely on outside influences. It's a crutch, a cheat.
We just don't believe enough in ourselves.
Considering the average fool out there dosn't even take a proper multi vitamin.. Airborne is a great alternative ..(and don't give me any fuckin' shit over my "name") you insipid little fuckers…GO SCREW!!!
Who the f cares if it wasn't a clinical trial?
It's not like they were claiming it cured cancer!
Plus Airborne works for me. I haven't gotten sick in like 2 years and I could swear it's b/c I take it as soon as I start to feel a little sick (also when I fly, drink enough that I might get a hangover, etc.).
legally… i believe they can sell it, the 1994 supplement act allows them to sell essentially anything. it isnt actually medicine. you can sell anything if you call it a supplement. your could sell dirt!!
If you take it as directed it has a harmful amount of vitamin A (about 4x more than the maximum you should take).
What is this ridiculous non-item? So what if Airborne can't write on the package that it cures colds. IT WORKS!!! I love Airborne and will always have some in my cupboard. There are even copycat products at Trader Joe's and Target, but I will stay with the OG, Airborne. This class action money grab should have nothing to do with you drinking Airborne or not. If it worked for you before, it still will. duh.
Whatever, I love it. I travel a lot for work and always take it before I board the plane. My last trip, I forgot to take it and got a cold as soon as I got back. Could be a coincidence, but I'm not risking it again. And the pink grapefruit flavor is the yum.
Since I started taking Airborne at the first signs of a cold, I only get what I like to call "mini colds." Used to be that I would have a painful sore throat for a couple days, followed by a completely plugged nose for 3 or so days, then lung congestion and coughing for another 3. All told, it would take maybe 7 or 8 days for the virus to run its course and go away.
Now that I use Airborne, I get symptoms for maybe 3 or 4 days at the most, with only minimal sinus congestion, and almost no mucus in the lungs. Lots of posters in this thread KNOW from experience that Airborne works. My only caveat would be that you have to be relatively healthy for it to be effective and you have to take it BEFORE you're really sick. Hopefully, that bullshit lawsuit doesn't bankrupt the company and force them to remove their product from the market.
why would you stop taking it just because of this?! I still think it's works the best, for whatever reason! I'm totally going to keep using it because definitive scientific proof or not, it's working for me!
Ha Ha. They should have taken Might-a-mins.
Who ever bought this crap should have to contribute to the lawsuit….
Whatta joke -
I've actually made trips from Canada because it works so well for me for nausea and jet lag. What about Wal-born distributed by Walgreen which I also use? It's a cop of Airborne.
zinc and vitamin C are the key ingredients and ARE PROVEN to shorten the duration of colds. echinachea is also used for sore throats and helps fight off viral infections. the ingredients are a benefit if you have a cold..and they are just getting sued because its a homeopathic remedy and the government will take down anyone who can CURE ANYTHING NATURALLY WITHOUT USING DRUGS! there is a law that homeopathic medicine cannot be advertised because the government and scientists do not make money off of it because THEY ARE ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS.
Re: naynay – Exactly, Americans thinks pharmecutical companys are here to help, its not, its a business, The FDA is set up to protect this business. This is not a business of finding a cure, what happens if you have an educated public about health, well doctors are no longer rich, pharmecutical companys no longer make profits. You need people to be sick to make this business run. Wake Up America & take chare of your health. Weve been given everything to stay healthy on our own.
I still think it works and won't stop taking it.
Well everytime I take airborne i'm completely fine the next day.. but then again i take the generic kind..
This story came out a week ago. You need to catch up on your "gossip"
look dude, that sucks but it's not like they were actually giving us rat poisin or horse tranquilizers. It's still tons of vitamins and minerals which can't really hurt if you're not feeling up to par. It's got enough good stuff in to to kick a little cold out…evn if it hasn't been prooven, we all know it works to a minor degree
you know what actually does work? drinking naked or odwalla juice. whenever i have a cold or feel like i'm about to get sick i drink those. it's just all fruit juice and a shitload of vitamin c. airborn and that other one, emergen-c isn't absorbed by your body the way drinking juice is.
and it tastes better anyway.
It has been scientifically documented in several clinical studies that the “Placebo Effect” can produce the same results as those who took actual medication during controlled experiments. As long I was convinced that the medication worked, my feeble brain would take the wheel from there on in and speed my recovery. If some dumbass didn’t spill the beans, rock the boat, upset the apple cart, or feel the need to rat, just think how many millions of people would be feeling relief from their lousy cold symptoms today. It would have been a simple case of mind over matter. You could cure the flu with stinking M&M’s if people had the notion in the back of their empty skulls that it actually worked and believed it to be true. New Rochelle Neil categorically states “Thanks to the royal swamp-hole who ruined it for working slobs like me who needed some hope that something might help me feel better and ratting out a poor school teacher who probably had to deal with a bunch of snot-nosed little bastards whilst scraping up a living on a teachers salary. They can all go straight to hell on seatless flaming tricycles.
whatever..I am a teacher, and maybe it's all in my head (mind over matter?) but this stuff works for me. Haven't been sick this year yet (hope I didn't just jinx myself!). I will keep taking it, certainly can't hurt.
Re: UKMum – Thank god for teachers… although yours didn't seem to help you much
DUDE FUCK THAT AIRBORNE WORKS FOR ME!!!!!!
it seriously DOES work!!
i had AIDS and airborne cured them!!!!
no but seriously this stuff DOES work!!!! fuck that lawsuit, FUCK the CSPI and FUCK the FTC……they're just jealous they didn't think of it first
Another act of fraud perpetrated by the big O herself. First "A Million Little Pieces" and now this. O had better learn to keep her big trap shut.
YO!!!! airborne is AWESOME!!!! its stopped my cold sooo many times… and it always makes me feel better…. i have gotten so many people on it and they say the same thing… plus it SAYS on the bottled not intended to cure or treat illness which is what they have to when things are not through FDA… plus if it wasn't good… why would VICKS and all these other brands do copy cat versions… its just that FDA was loosing money off of it… like many alternative meds its put down… but it still works…
It's a vitamin boost - nothing more. It never has been! Take it for what it's worth! I LOVE AIRBORNE! Working in an office, I start taking it the second everyone starts getting sick. IT WORKS!!!!!
People in the country sue over everything. This time, they saw an opportunity to sue over the wording on the box. If your stupid enough to think it's a cure-all - don't use it.
If you're smart enough to realize it's just a vitamin boost used to HELP your immune system - keep using it, like I do!
Aw man, I just went to Costco last month and purchased this crap in bulk, since everyone swore up and down this shit worked (damn placebo effect). I feel rather stupid. I wants my money back damnit!
Actually, the nutrients in Airborne have been shown to help prevent and /or speed the healing of colds and flu. THis information can be found by doing a search on medline. While it may have been deceptive to promote their "clinical studies", it is not inaccurate to state that the ingredients will support the immune system and prevent colds. This is simply yet ANOTHER case of the FDA trying to put a dietary supplement company out of business, while protecting pharmaceutical companies and hiding information about side effects (including death) incurred by prescription drug use. Do not be deceived into thinking the FDA is protecting YOU- they only protect the cash cow.
I am not affiliated with Airborne- just a Naturopathic Doctor who is educated on the topic.
Re: Porkchop –
Ah true Porkchop, forgot about that. You're right, a virus can't be cured really, that I know of. But supposedly drinking airborne when you first felt the symptoms of cold or whatever was suppose to help shorten the length of the cold. I also remember people suggesting you drink it regularly as a preventative measure to boost your immune system. But yeah, if its a virus, you're fucked and can only take cold medicines to help alleviate the symptoms and make you feel more comfortable while your body takes care of the cold.
to the kid that said people who take zinc and vitamin c are morons , you're a moron yeah you piss it away but only if you get too much of it you assbag but most people don't get enough zinc people are to busy eating shit food with no vitamins, as far as the airborne is concerned it worked for me and even if it is my head oh well , it still contains vitamins that are good for you for when you are getting sick. i hate these dumbass fucks that are suing you could sue anyone for anything it's such bullshit… oh my coffee was hot i didn't know it was hot, oh airborne didn't cure my cold , cry me a fucking river pussies
I knew it!! That shit never worked!! I bought it once and got sick like 2 weeks after I started taking it. I tried it again, but to no avail. That shit sucks!! They owe me money
lol omg thats so stupid
This is bullshit. Pharmaceutical companies are nothing more than crooks looking for ways to attack the natural medicine markets. They sell over-priced drugs to people that are often NOT even tested before selling them, which in turn kill many, many thousands of people per year. The FDA take bribes and pay offs in order to get their shitty, toxic drugs on the market so they can make money off of people. They don't care how many people they kill because by the time they have made billions off of a drug they can more than afford to take the hit for a few thousand lawsuits from either the people suffering from the side effects or their families from the people they have murdered.