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The ads, which played on the radio, in television commercials on channels from HGTV to CNN and in Google searches, were pervasive and seductive. The copy varied, but the message was always the same: brain games were the antidote for a range of cognitive issues, from garden-variety memory loss, to ADHD to Alzheimer’s.
“No matter why you want a better brain, Lumosity.com can help,” a man reassures, via voiceover, in one ad. “It’s like a personal trainer for your brain, improving your performance with the science of neuroplasticity, but in a way that just feels like games.”
While some of the company’s reported thirty-five million people bought into the fantasy, paying $14.95 for a monthly subscription for the company’s desktop and mobile games, the Federal Trade Commission was unconvinced. In January, the agency sued Lumos Labs, the maker of Lumosity, for deceptive advertising, claiming, its products’ effectiveness lacked valid scientific backing. Lumos Labs settled for $2 million, although it continues to make and market brain games.
“The settlement pertained to certain advertising language from past marketing campaigns,” Erica Perng, the...