Dr. Jeff Gunter, a wealthy dermatologist running for the U.S. Senate in Nevada claiming to be the “America First” candidate, at one point in his younger days appeared in sketchy late-night infomercials peddling anti-wrinkle skin serum that at least one man said in a lawsuit led to him getting infected with a terrible disease.
Gunter, who made millions in his dermatology practices over the years and would later become former President Donald Trump’s U.S. ambassador to Iceland in Trump’s first term, is now running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Silver State against decorated combat veteran Captain Sam Brown.
Brown, as Breitbart News has reported previously, has most of his body covered in third-degree burns due to a roadside bomb that went off while he was protecting his fellow troops in Afghanistan leaving him severely wounded several years ago. Brown has emerged as the major Republican candidate for U.S. Senate this cycle in Nevada, but the race is not yet over as Gunter who is self-funding in a big way is still spending millions in the primary despite trailing Brown significantly in the polls.
Nevada Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Sam Brown shakes hands with a veteran at the Memorial Day Ceremony at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, NV, on May 30, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The emergence of these infomercial appearances by Gunter, which have not been previously reported, raise serious questions about whether he is as straightforward as he claims to be on the campaign trail or if this run for office is another “scam” as some people called the sketchy anti-wrinkle serum he was hawking in the wee hours of the morning.
The video of the infomercials is extremely difficult to find online, as is the website for the firm for which Gunter was peddling this stuff. An internet archive search for the video found that it aired on NBC in Baltimore between 5 and 6 a.m. eastern time on Sept. 16, 2013. The video, available in minute-long snippets, has been pulled from there by Breitbart News into a broader, slightly-longer than seven-minute-long clip uploaded here.
Several minutes into the video, a woman host of the informercial says that the “Youthology 90-second wrinkle removing serum” is a “more acceptable alternative” than Botox injections or “costly and invasive cosmetic surgery” that was “developed at Youthology Research Institute with Dr. Jeffrey Gunter who is the head of research and a board-certified dermatologist with clinics throughout Southern California.”
While she is saying these things, Gunter is standing behind her on a set with three women test subjects who are about to use Gunter’s serum, and it cuts back and forth between that and B-roll of Gunter walking around in a white coat engaging in the activities one would expect of a doctor.
Then Gunter himself comes on screen to talk. “That’s right, Ann-Marie,” Gunter says. “Our goal was simple: To scientifically and naturally help our patients defy the visible signs of aging, to have them look many years younger without undergoing surgery or relying on periodic injections.”
“When you look at the human face, there are essentially three major indicators that the skin is aging,” Gunter continues as graphics appear on screen of a woman’s face with a chart showing these signs of aging, “that can often make people appear older than they are.”
“Let me show you what I’m talking about,” Gunter says as he walks over to the women he and the host of the infomercial have staged on-set for the on-screen experiment. He points to “fine lines and wrinkles underneath and around the eyes” on the first woman, then the “deep lines and wrinkles on the corners of the eyes” of the second woman, which he says are “commonly referred to as crow’s feet.” Then, on the third woman, he points to “sagging skin or bags typically found underneath the eyes.”
“These are all very common occurrences — they happen naturally, but they very much make us look older than our years,” Gunter continues.
After that, he proceeds for the next several minutes to apply the serum he is selling in the infomercial to the faces of the three women while a camera is trained on each one for 90 seconds to see the supposed effects of it in real-time. When showing the before and after images on the first subject, for instance, Gunter then says, “you can see the fine lines and wrinkles have literally vanished!”
When Gunter got to the second woman, he shows the before and after pictures then says there is no longer has any wrinkles or crow’s feet evidence. “They are completely gone!”
“The wrinkles and creases that formed the crow’s feet have disappeared,” he added.
With the third woman on screen, he made similar comments saying the bags under her eyes have been “lifted, tightened, and have completely disappeared” thanks to the serum.
Later in the infomercial, too, another narrator says over footage of people applying the serum that “it’s even perfect for men who want to look years younger, just like that!”
One man who says he did end up buying the Youthology serum that Gunter was selling said in a lawsuit that the experience was a disaster for him. David Schumacher, a California man, filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court in 2009 alleging that Gunter’s miracle serum was really a nightmare for him.
“Plaintiff, while using defendant’s product Youthology, Clinical Essentials, 90 second wrinkle eye serum, contracted necrotizing fasciitis, sepsis, and permanent disfigurement, internal organ injury, and scarring around plaintiff’s eyes, and other injuries,” the lawsuit document reads. “Defendants and each of them manufactured or assembled, designed, or manufactured component parts and/or processes, marketed, advertised, failed to test, and warranted the product to be safe for public use.”
Gunter is named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit. Later filings in the court case note that Gunter was dismissed as a defendant from the lawsuit, and Youthology settled with the plaintiff. Other filings show the various doctors Schumacher saw as he dealt with necrotizing fasciitis and the horrible processes he went through as he presented at the emergency room where doctors took him in for immediate surgery to remove parts of his face where this infection was spreading. The entire set of documents, dozens of pages long, tells the horrifying story of what this poor man went through.
Complaint by Breitbart News on Scribd
Doctors Notes by Breitbart News on Scribd
While not everyone had as horrifying an experience as the man who said he contracted necrotizing fasciitis in the lawsuit that Youthology settled, many reviews online on a number of websites called the product a “scam” or “ripoff.”
For his part, Gunter does not deny filming these infomercials and actually remains proud of doing so. When reached for comment from Breitbart News, the Gunter campaign sent back a statement that whoever responded to the press inquiry email on his campaign website said was attributable to the campaign. The last sentence of the statement though refers to Gunter in the first person, and insists his campaign is “not a scam.”
“Dr. Gunter ran a clinical trial and was a spokesperson for a colleague’s product that was incredibly effective and patients loved,” the Gunter campaign told Breitbart News. “He is proud to help others feel better in their own skin and also recommends 30 SPF sunblock, staying away from potential radioactive nuclear waste sites such as Yucca Mountain and avoiding the peak sun hours between 10 and 2. Unlike my opponent, this is not a scam.”
When asked about the inconsistency, and whether the statement was from him or the campaign, whoever runs the press inquiry email for the Gunter campaign emailed back an updated statement that changed that last sentence to: “Unlike his opponent, this is not a Scam.”
Whoever wins between Brown and Gunter will face Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) in November.
