We’ve written in this space before about the unique challenges faced by a product when a celebrity endorser goes off the rails. Now, as Jessica Alba’s Earth-friendly Honest Company is just about to launch in Target stores, there are new reports that some products imported by the company from China have been previously blocked by the FDA as unsafe.
Honest Company reportedly uses Chinese manufacturer American Hygienics as a supplier, and indeed, according to the Product Refusal Report, the FDA banned “cleansing products” beginning back in 2008-09 for using a “new animal drug which is unsafe.” The Daily Mail reports that American Hygienics is indeed one of Honest Company’s suppliers, though the banned products were not associated with or used by Honest Company. The Honest Company has previously defended its position on American Hygienics, as well as using other Chinese suppliers on the Honest Company’s blog.
There’s a little more celebrity smoke around this fire. Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle blog “Goop” last month cited that The Honest Company’s All-Purpose Cleaner with a “C” grade and replaced it’s recommendation with an “A” grade cleaner, based on advice given by the Environment Working Group. No matter whether you put more weight on the press accounts, the plausible denial from Honest Company, or the judgements from another Hollywood star, the takeaway for us in the promo products industry is a familiar one. As always, “trust, but verify” your suppliers.
Speaking of trust, you can put trust in the fact that you will certainly learn something from our live webinar coming up on June 17. Three industry principals, Brandon Mackay from SnugZ USA, Jon Levine from The Image Group, and SanMar’s Jeremy Lott, will be sharing how product safety and corporate responsibility are woven into their everyday business practices. Moderated by Promo Marketing’s Kyle Richardson, this promises to be a lively session with both interesting presentations, as well as plenty of time for Q&A. We hope you’ll join us, and if you haven’t signed up yet, here is the link to do so:
Finally, while we certainly wouldn’t favor any one accredited supplier over another here, perhaps you saw an interesting announcement from QCA founding member Logomark this week about Logomark’s marketing hub software. While not related specifically to product safety or compliance, this unique marketing concept is definitely worth a look. Speaking as a former end-user client, I know that promotional products were all too often a last minute add-on to marketing plans. Rather than an after-thought, Logomark has installed proprietary software that Logomark founder Trevor Gnesin suggests will integrate promo products more fully into the marketing plan itself. “This technology platform will change the way brand managers view promotional products-placing them at the absolute forefront of effective advertising campaigns rather than an afterthought for allocating remaining marketing dollars,” Gnesin said. The software suite is in beta testing now, and should be ready for rollout in early 2015. Stay tuned for the results.
