Reebok oxygen claim not scientifically proven
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ordered sportswear firm Reebok to remove an advert which it says published unsupported claims.
Reebok said in a promotional leaflet that its ZigTechApparel which is “engineered with Celliant fibres” is able to increase oxygen levels in the body by up to seven percent.
The company says that this is made possible because the fibres allow infrared light that is emitted from the body to be reflected back towards it, which in turn enables capillaries to relax and increases blood flow.
However, the ASA feels that the studies which Reebok submitted to support the claim do not offer “documentary evidence for claims capable of objective substantiation.”
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The leaflet featured F1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton who has previously been involved in advertising campaigns for Reebok, recently promoting the Reezig ZigTech trainers.
Hamilton appeared in the advertising leaflet wearing the Reezig ZigTech trainers, something which Reebok also received a warning for after the ASA said it could lead consumers to believe that the trainers have been engineered with the new technology, which they have not.
A spokesperson for Reebok said in a statement: “We accept but disagree with this ruling, which was based on one complaint about one leaflet.”
“The leaflet clearly showed the shoe on one side and the clothing on the other and, in our view, was not misleading.”
She went on to say that the Celliant fibres were a “clinically proven technology to which we remain firmly committed.”
Lewis Hamilton in a Reebok ZigTech advert:
