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FTC issues list of bogus weight-loss advertising claims
FTC issues list of bogus weight-loss claims
Last Updated: 2003-12-09 14:01:51 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Peter Kaplan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday escalated its campaign against phony weight-loss advertising, issuing a list of false claims that it said should be banned by the media.
The FTC outlined seven claims most commonly made by purveyors of bogus weight-loss products and prodded media outlets to avoid them for the sake of public health.
"Unfortunately, there are way too many ads for scientifically impossible weight-loss products in the popular media," FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said. "The media should institute screening programs to 'red flag' deceitful weight-loss ads and refuse to run them."
The seven "red flag" claims all hold out the promise that potential customers can lose weight quickly without exercising or cutting back on eating, sometimes through unorthodox means such as creams or wraps.
Muris said he had met with media executives and trade associations to make the case that they should voluntarily refuse such ads.
He said associations representing U.S. newspapers, magazine publishers, broadcasters and cable TV operators had all agreed to make the list available to their members.
The agency also issued a 35-page report that concluded losing weight by using creams, wraps, devices and patches is "not scientifically feasible."
Since 1990, the FTC has brought scores of cases against marketers of fraudulent weight loss products, and some media outlets already screen out advertisements that contain false claims.
The FTC's proposal has been greeted cautiously by media trade organizations and some media executives. They fear that screening the ads would compromise free-speech rights, and that the FTC's stance could open them up to lawsuits by disgruntled consumers.
But Muris said it's often in the media's interest to reject the phony ads because the companies that make them sometimes skip out on their bills. In one case, he said, a weight-loss company stuck one radio network with a $10 million unpaid bill.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archiv...209elin015.html
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