Chapter 18B: U.S: The Disinformation Campaign Against Adya Clarity

Inside the 2010 dogpile—who said what, what actually happened, and what the FDA did (and didn’t) do.

The Adya Clarity Smear Campaign of 2010

The second major campaign unfolded in the United States, targeting a Themarox-derived water purification product called Adya Clarity®, made by Adya, Inc.. Adya Inc was founded in 2004, which worked in partnership with Shimanishi Kaken Co. of Japan to bring Themarox into the U.S. market. Themarox comes in a highly concentrated form, while Adya Clarity—like several “private label” brands—is instead prepared by diluting that concentrate for use in water purification.

In the period leading up to the 2010 disinformation campaign, my colleague Kacper Postawski was involved in marketing Adya Clarity through a reseller of Adya, Inc.. The product was gaining in popularity, sales were strong, and momentum was building—until the smear campaign hit. Kacper will readily admit that he too made health claims not supported by data - he was young and had a lot to learn.

I really wish I didn’t have to go into this one, because it brings me sadness to recall how Adya Clarity’s business was gutted—reduced to a shell of what it had once been, where it has largely remained for the past 15 years.

The campaign unleashed a flood of accusations, all of them demonstrably false. What began as suspicion quickly snowballed into a coordinated effort to discredit the product and the company behind it.