FTC: ‘Your Baby Can Read’ ads deceptive

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many babies at 9 months old are just starting to stand up. Some take their first steps. But reading? At 9 months? Really?

The Federal Trade Commission doesn’t think so.

The agency has filed a complaint against the man behind the “Your Baby Can Read” program, Robert Titzer. The FTC accuses him of false and deceptive advertising for promoting his program in ads and product packaging as a tool to teach infants as young as 9 months to read.

The “Your Baby Can Read” program used a combination of videos, flashcards and pop-up books and was advertised extensively on television, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

The company, Your Baby Can, and its president and chief executive until March 2010, Hugh Penton Jr., also were named in the complaint. Both have agreed to settle the charges. The settlement imposes a $185 million judgment — equal to the company’s gross sales since 2008 — but most of it would be suspended because of the company’s failing financial condition.

The company, based in Carlsbad, Calif., announced earlier this year that it was going out of business. It cited the high cost of fighting complaints alleging that its ads were false.

Mr. Titzer, an educator with a doctorate in human performance from Indiana University, developed the program and appeared in many of the ads promoting the Your Baby Can Read videos and program. He was billed as a “recognized expert in infant learning.”

The FTC says he and the company did studies to back up the claims, but the agency says those studies were flawed.

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