Four weight-loss pill marketers in the US have been fined $25 million for false advertising using 'before' and ' after' photos, writes Sean O'Driscoll.
Two years ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was busy cutting photos from women's magazines for what would become one of the biggest lawsuits ever taken against diet pill companies. The FTC was after those dodgy "before and after" photos of fat people who become supermodels through the power of infomercial-pushed wonder pills. Among the government exhibits in the case is an ad from a 2003 Cosmopolitanmagazine featuring former Playmate Anna Nicole Smith in four sexy pics; some in her "on the town" garb, some in her "come to bed" lingerie pose. The photos and the written testimonial were all to sell the supposed wonder drug, Trimspa. Beside these photos is a much smaller, depressing black-and-white photo of Anna Nicole before she allegedly lost 69lb in eight months.
In this "before" photo, Anna Nicole's arms look like they could strangle a buffalo, her hair looks like she's just been electrocuted and her smile is insincere and embarrassed. The message to young women struggling with weight gain is obvious - with Trimspa, you'll love yourself; without it, you won't.
But this month, Trimspa, Xenadrine, and two other major weight-control pill marketers paid fines totalling $25 million (€19 million) to the FTC for false advertising, throwing new light on the supposed accuracy of "before" and "after" dieting photos in magazine and TV ads. The FTC found that the adverts didn't explain that Anna Nicole was paid, and more importantly, her Trimspa claims were not backed up by any scientific research. In fact, Trimspa has now been banned from making any further claims about the "health benefits, performance, efficacy, safety or side effects" of Trimspa's supposed miracle ingredient, hoodia gordonii, unless it shows some evidence.
So how do advertisers fix the "before" and "after" diet photos for the multi-billion dollar dieting industry? The FTC and private lawsuits reveal some of the worst practices of the multi-billion dollar diet pill business. First, diet companies have to get that grim "before" photo.
Todd Macaluso, a San Diego lawyer who led a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Xenadrine, took sworn statements from several Xenadrine "before and after" models. "They encouraged models to eat like pigs for a few weeks at a time, that's how it's done," he says.
One Xenadrine model, Los Angeles bodybuilder Mike Piacentino, swore in a deposition that he was paid to eat ice cream and doughnuts three weeks in advance of the "before" photo. After the models have bulked up, it's just a matter of wearing nasty, fat-accentuating clothes. Piacentino said that, on the day of his "before" photo shoot in Central New Jersey, he was told to wear tightly-bound string pants that would press against his lower abdomen and force the fat to "hang out" over the top. He was also told to make sure the pants legs were loose and hid his well-developed bodybuilder's thighs.
In Anna Nicole's "before" photo in Cosmopolitan, she is also wearing string pants, which accentuate the tummy bulge. Then there's the misery factor. Piacentino reported that he was told to slouch, press out his belly and look depressed for the "before" photo. In some cases recorded by Macaluso, women were told not to wear any make-up for the "before" photo and were given elaborate makeovers for the "after" shot.
Many of the "before" photos cited in the FTC case were photographed in grim black and white to add to the dreary feel. And then, there's the miracle of the diet pill, which arrives deus ex machina to save the fat people from their monochrome, unhappy lives. The photos here have been shown to be just as fake.
According to FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, the personalities hired by the diet pill companies are often secretly offered diet coaches and personal trainers to guarantee weight loss. FTC lawyer Peter Miller said that he has come across several instances of hidden coaching, but the $25 million settlement was reached before he could call witnesses. "Let's just say we wouldn't bring forward a complaint unless we were confident we had a case," he says.
The adverts always come with really impressive claims of weight loss, but bodybuilder Piacentino said his weight loss came nowhere nearly as quickly as Xenadrine claimed in its adverts. Also, his gym workouts exposed the hard stomach muscle that he had built up over years in the bodybuilding business, and he did not pack on "a phenomenal 12lb of lean muscle mass", as the Xenadrine adverts had claimed.
In its case, the FTC noted that Anna Nicole Smith was supposed to have lost a whopping 69lb on Trimspa, but the company was unable to back up its claim. The key, says the FTC's Peter Miller, is to watch out for unsubstantiated claims. "We're not saying diet pill companies can't run "before" and "after" photos, but we are saying that they will have to show evidence. We're telling advertisers that time's up on false claims. Now, they're going to have to show us the proof."