Question

INTERPRETING THE REAL LIFE STORY: Michael’s Experience

I used to fall for every “get thin quick” ad I saw on television. I bought diet pills, supplements, exercise equipment, and many other items that were advertised as causing quick and easy weight loss while still being able to eat whatever you wanted. I would always start using the product with a lot of enthusiasm, only to realize after a short time that it didn’t work at all. In the case of the diet pills I tried, they were actually worse than ineffective, they were scary. Some would make my heart flutter and race in a way that did not seem healthy. When I read the last chapter of Lifetime Physical Fitness and Wellness, I definitely recognized my past experiences in the description of quackery and fraud. The advice about how to evaluate claims about a product’s benefits really helped me. Now, when I see those commercials, sometimes at first I am still tempted to buy, but when I really think about what they are saying and some of the buzzwords they use, I recognize that what they are promising is too good to be true, and it is most likely just another gimmick that doesn’t work. Learning that lesson has saved me from wasting a lot of money and using unhealthy weight loss gimmicks that don’t work.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Are there any health or weight-loss products you have seen advertised that you suspect are deceptive?

2. What are some examples of false claims that these products use in advertising?

3. What are some ways that you can investigate the legitimacy of a product before buying it?

Answer 1

Ans:

1:

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could lose weight simply by taking a pill, wearing a patch, or rubbing in a cream? Unfortunately, claims that you can lose weight without changing your habits just aren’t true, and some of these products could even hurt your health. So don’t be hooked by ads that woo you with wild promises – or by glowing product reviews and “news articles” that are often fake. All you’ll lose is money. Doctors, dieticians, and other experts agree: the best way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more.

If you’re looking to lose weight, watch this video and read the rest of the article. This information will help you identify false claims in weight loss ads and false online stories about weight loss products.

False promises in ads

Dishonest advertisers will say just about anything to get you to buy their weight loss products.
Here are some of the (false) promises from weight loss ads:

• Lose weight without dieting or exercising. (You won’t.)
• You don’t have to watch what you eat to lose weight. (You do.)
• If you use this product, you’ll lose weight permanently. (Wrong.)
• To lose weight, all you have to do is take this pill. (Not true.)
• You can lose 30 pounds in 30 days. (Nope.)
• This product works for everyone. (It doesn’t.)
• Lose weight with this patch or cream. (You can’t.)

Here’s the truth:

• Any promise of miraculous weight loss is simply untrue.
• There’s no magic way to lose weight without a sensible diet and regular exercise.
• No product will let you eat all the food you want and still lose weight.
• Permanent weight loss requires permanent lifestyle changes, so don’t trust any product that promises once-and-for-all results.
• FDA-approved fat-absorption blockers or appetite suppressants won’t result in weight loss on their own; those products are to be taken with a low-calorie, low-fat diet and regular exercise.
• Products promising lightning-fast weight loss are always a scam. Worse, they can ruin your health.
• Even if a product could help some people lose weight in some situations, there’s no one-size-fits-all product guaranteed to work for everyone. Everyone’s habits and health concerns are unique.
• Nothing you can wear or apply to your skin will cause you to lose weight. Period.

False stories online

Dishonest advertisers place false stories online through fake news websites, blogs, banner ads, and social media to sell bogus weight loss products. This is what they do:

• Post false “news” stories. They create so-called “news” reports online about how an ingredient (like garcinia cambogia) found in a diet pill is supposedly effective for weight loss.
• Use logos of legitimate news outlets. They place the stolen logos of real news organizations, or they use names and web addresses that look like those of well-known news outlets and websites.
• Feature phony investigations. They say these false stories are "investigations" into the effectiveness of a product, and even add public photos of known reporters to make you think the report is real.
• Pay for positive online reviews. Sometimes they write glowing online reviews themselves or pay others to do so. Sometimes they just cut and paste positive comments from other fake sites.
• Use stock or altered photos. Very often they use images showing a dramatic weight loss, but these images are just stock or altered photographs.

2:

False Advertising

The most common false claims said "Lose weight without diet and exercise," "Eat all you want and still lose weight -- the pill does it all," and "Lose 30 pounds in 30 days," according to the study of 300 ads in magazines, newspapers, television and other outlets from February through May of 2001.

More than two-thirds of all Americans are trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain, and they spent about $35 billion on products to help them do so in 2000, including diet food and sodas, videos, books, medical treatments and supplements, according to the report.

An estimated 61 percent of the U.S. population is currently overweight, according to the report.

Weight-loss ads on the rise

Misleading weight-loss advertising has increased over the past decade, in large part because the federal rule requiring FDA-approval of dietary supplements was relaxed in 1994, said Richard Cleland, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Advertising Practices.

The rule change led to a surge of new products, including those made by illegitimate companies eager to make a quick buck. Diet supplements alone currently account for about $5 billion in sales, Cleland said.

"All of the review that's going on now is post-market review, which in terms of a crook is an invitation to lie, cheat and steal," Cleland said.

In addition to more ads, the crowded marketplace for weight-loss products has led to ever-more deceptive claims as companies vie for consumers' attention, Cleland said.

The most common product sold in the ads is dietary supplements, followed by meal replacements like shakes, and offers for hypnosis.

On the receiving end of the ads is a target audience that isn't able to use common sense to assess the validity of the claims.

"The target audience are people who are desperate for a solution," Cleland said. "Somewhere in their mind they probably know it won't work, but they think 'I've got to do something, there's got to be a magic bullet.' And there is no magic bullet."

Cracking down on misleading claims

The FTC said its efforts against deceptive marketing for weight-loss products have increased.

In April 2000, Enforma Natural Products, which advertised and sold "The Enforma System," agreed to repay $10 million to customers to settle FTC charges that they used false claims about scientific testing.

The company promoted its two products -- "Fat Trapper" and "Exercise In A Bottle" -- primarily with 30-minute infomercials featuring former baseball player Steve Garvey. The company claimed the system could block fat from being absorbed and increase the body's capacity to burn it off.

Some of the ads did not include safety information on the product's ingredients. For instance, Ephedra, a popular herb commonly used for weight loss and bodybuilding, has long been controversial. The FDA has reports of 100 deaths among ephedra users.

The Justice Department said last month that it is conducting a criminal investigation into whether Metabolife International, the nation's leading seller of the supplement, lied about the safety of ephedra.

While the FTC study did not criticize specific products, it provided many examples of false or exaggerated claims.

Here are examples of companies that were found guilty of false advertising:

• Activia yogurt - Dannon stated that its yogurt had nutritional benefits other yogurts didn't. They had to pay $45 million in a class action settlement.
• Splenda - Ads say it is made from sugar; but, that is not the case. It is made of highly-processed chemical compounds.

Types of Weight Loss Scams

Weight loss scams can range from the highly illegal (and even dangerous) to the mildly unethical. Kopko states, "There are degrees of fraud and misleading consumers. Some are scams where the person doesn't receive anything at all when they send in their money. Another form of scam is when the customer sends in money, and they get a product that has no benefit, such as a sugar pill."

Other weight loss scams use questionable practices, such as making claims for an ingredient-but without scientific studies to back them up. Kopko adds, "In yet other scams, the product has very low levels of active ingredients, so the person doesn't get the desired result."

Some products sell because their names are similar to real products-even though they don't contain the same ingredients or quality. Dr. Bruner warns that these knockoffs are frauds: "The person thinks, 'Oh, I can get this a lot cheaper here?' but be careful, and check it out thoroughly first."

Kopko has seen all types of weight loss scams during her years with the Better Business Bureau. She remembers, "Years ago, in our area, there was a business that sold 'weight loss glasses'; one lens was blue, the other brown. Supposedly, the two colors 'confused the brain' and the person didn't get hungry." She adds, "Another fraud was weight loss "bath powder' that a person pours into the tub, that promised weight loss."

3:

Typically, weight loss scams make promises that aren't realistic. Headlines that promise weight loss without dieting are always scams, since calorie reduction is the basis of any true weight loss program. There are no legitimate weight loss programs that allow you to "eat whatever you want" without limit. As Monica Revelle, public relations specialist at the FDA notes: "If it sounds too good to be true-it is!"

Other tips offs that the weight loss product is a scam include:

* Claims to be a "secret" formula: Products that claim to have secret formulas are scams. Dr. Bruner feels strongly on this issue, and states, "There are no 'secrets to weight loss' being held away from the public. In America alone, an estimated 100 people a day die from obesity; we could prevent 300,000 deaths annually if there was a real product that made weight loss simple and safe, and physicians would be the first to prescribe them."

* There's no physical address for the business. Legitimate products and services will have a physical address and phone number. Be wary of those that only offer a mailbox, or a toll-free number to call manned by "help center" personnel. Kopko shares, "While not all companies that have P.O. or private mail boxes (PMBs) are illegitimate, plenty are. Check to see if there are the letters 'PMB' after a physical address; this indicates that it's really a private mail box, that can forward mail to anywhere in the world." She adds that the Internet is also being used to promote frauds, and adds, "You can't judge how good or legitimate a product is by how professional the web site looks. This only reflects how good their web designer was."

* They promise rapid weight loss. Weight loss that is too rapid is not only unhealthy, but is normally quickly regained. The best plans advocate moderate goals, with slow, steady weight loss of about 6-8 pounds a month over a long period. Dr. Bruner states, "Any product that offer overnight or rapid changes is a fraud."

* They state that they can help a person lose fat or cellulite in a specific part of the body. Body fat is lost overall, not in a spot, and ads that claim otherwise are frauds.

* They promise permanent weight loss. No product can do this, since permanent weight loss is maintained by lifestyle changes.

By avoiding products with the above "red flags" in their advertising, you can protect yourself from illegitimate products-and save money.