The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) has officially launched its new website - lifesupplemented.org - as part of its "Life…supplemented" public relations campaign. Earlier this week, the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) also launched a website as a first step in its campaign to publicize the positive face of the industry.

The idea behind such sites is to interact directly with consumers - informing them of the healthy potential of dietary supplements, but also getting them to evaluate their own personal health goals.

"The fact of the matter is, most of us struggle with eating right and finding the time to exercise," said Annette Dickinson, CRN consultant and past president. "This campaign helps educate Americans about things we can do to help improve overall health and well-being."

Drawing on the support of over 25 dietary supplement companies, the trade association's three-year campaign is aimed to encourage a perception that taking dietary supplements is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle, in the same way that exercise and a well-balanced diet are fundamental to such a lifestyle.

CRN's new website is designed to encourage consumers to create a personal wellness regimen that makes use of what it calls the three pillars of wellness: a healthy diet, supplementation and exercise. The site contains a wellness 'scorecard' web surfers can use to determine what level of personal health they are at. CRN has dubbed these levels 'alphawell', 'well', 'wannabewell', or an 'ohwell'.

DSEA's website is looking to attract consumers with more than $100 in free coupons for dietary supplements, along with ads from its 'Just Like Me' campaign, information about the campaign, a game, and links to dietary supplement information.

The aim of such campaigns is to show consumers there are two sides to every story and that while some dietary supplements have been marketed on shady grounds, many others are manufactured and marketed by responsible companies and founded on clinical research.

"This consumer wellness campaign is important for our industry, because we're talking to consumers on a practical level," said CRN vice president of communications, Judy Blatman. "We all want to know that there's good science behind the products we use to maintain and promote good health, but we also want to know what other healthy people are doing and how we can personally improve our health habits."

DSEA's 'Just Like Me' campaign is also aimed at putting the dietary supplement industry and its products in a more positive light for consumers.

The coalition of dietary supplement manufacturers is launching an advertising campaign across radio, print and point-of-purchase mediums with the aim of disseminating another image to counter any sensational headlines that make it into the mainstream media.