Telemarketing tennis shoes banned for deceptive advertising

By Estudio Chaloupka

“Perfect Steps” is a tennis shoe brand that supposedly helps users to lose weight, correct their posture, burn calories and reshape their bodies. Offered through telemarketing, these shoes are known in Argentina as the "Jesica Cirio shoes" because Jesica Cirio, a famous local model, was the main image of the brand.

However, the brand reputation in the country took a hit after the Federal Contentious-Administrative Court of Appeals fined Sprayette SA, the company that advertises and sells the tennis shoes, with 400,000 Argentinian pesos (just under USD 30,000) for false advertising.

According to the ruling, the alleged properties of the tennis shoes as advertised were not supported by scientific evidence.

The specific reason for the decision was a graphic advertisement published in April 2012 in "Viva" magazine, where Sprayette SA promoted these Perfect Steps shoes with phrases like "They help to lose weight", "They help to correct posture", "They help to burn calories," "They favor blood circulation", "They help to reduce foot pain" and "They help to reduce back pain", among others. The ruling further stated that those expressions lead consumers to error, deceit or confusion as regards the characteristics, properties and use of the offered product, for it claims to have therapeutic and aesthetic properties which were not officially acknowledged or recognized"