USA Today recently published an article about the hot water that Lifestyle Lift is in for “deceptive advertising.” This eventually ended in a settlement where the cosmetic surgery company agreed with the Florida Attorney General to change specific marketing practices, follow the FTC guidelines on testimonials, and to stop calling their facelift a “revolutionary procedure.”
It’s not entirely clear what Lifestyle Lift did wrong. The office for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi did not elaborate. Bondi merely stated, “Lifestyle Lift has agreed to change its marketing materials and practices to eliminate any possible consumer confusion about its services,” after last week’s settlement was reached.
Lifestyle Lift’s deception in its description of the procedure is at the heart of the matter. USA Today had previously reported on this back in 2011, noting that Lifestyle Lift claimed their procedure was “painless” and had a “quick recovery time,” when patients were complaining of the opposite. Furthermore, it’s been alleged that models were compensated for promoting Lifestyle Lift.
Miami plastic surgeon (and TRBO ADvance client) Dr. Adam Rubinstein sums it up nicely, “It’s a disappointing result for an investigation into practices of Lifestyle Lift that have knowingly been deceiving potential patients.”
This situation is not unlike the situation facing many medical spas right now. A couple weeks ago I published an article about how many states are cracking down on their regulation of med spas. The heart of that debate is med spas misrepresenting their procedures, skills or experience.
Cosmetic practices of all shapes and sizes should take a step back from this and really analyze their marketing. How truthful are you being? Are you being misleading in any way? Setting expectations is the key to any business, but it’s even more important in the medical field where people are literally “under the knife.”
