FTC flags success over false weight-loss ads
claims for dietary supplements, creams and patches fell from 50
percent in 2001 to just 15 percent in 2004, according to a survey
carried out by the Federal Trade Commission.
The commission attributes the decrease, shown in its non-scientific Weight-Loss Advertising Survey: 2004, to its Red Flag initiative which encourages broadcast and print media to refuse to run advertisements containing false claims.
"Good media screening is good business," said FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. "I encourage the media to continue their efforts to identify and reject clearly false weight-loss advertising."
Weight-loss is a top priority for many Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 64 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, and therefore have an increased risk of developing serious health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
Although the government has introduced a number of initiatives aimed at encouraging healthy eating, such the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans published in January, some people are still looking for a quick-fix solution, often at the expense of a healthy diet.
Platt Majoras has said in the past that by curbing false and misleading advertisements for weight-loss products "FTC hopes to keep this national obesity epidemic from getting worse".
The FTC's Red Flag initiative was launched in February 2003 to make the media aware of seven claims that should make it wary of a product's efficacy:
That users could lose more than two pounds per week (over four or more weeks) without cutting back on calories and/or stepping up physical activity; that users could lose substantial weight while eating unlimited amounts of high calorie foods; that weight loss is permanent, even once the user has stopped using the product; that the product causes substantial weight loss by blocking fat or calorie absorption; that users could safely lose more than three pounds per week without conveying the need for medical supervision; that users could lose substantial weight through a product worn on the body or rubbed into the skin; that the product causes substantial weight loss for all users.
However the FTC admits that the initiative - which is ongoing - may not be able to take full credit for the decrease.
"Although this decline is consistent with results the commission hoped its Red Flag initiative would have," said the report, "we cannot determine with certainty whether the observed results were the results of the FTC's initiative."
A good deal of publicity has also surrounded action taken by the FTC against companies making false and misleading claims, which may have led some weight loss product marketers to think twice before repeating their mistakes.
In November 2004 the FTC launched 'Operation Big Fat Lie', a nation-wide enforcement sweep that saw it bring cases against six companies that made at least one of the Red Flag claims in advertising.
