Diet aids lose sales mass as ad guidelines get tighter
Overall sales of over-the-counter diet aids continue to shrink. Dollar sales in the category have dropped 13.2% to $294.4 million and units sold dropped by 5.3% to 13.6 million for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 6, according to Information Resources Inc., across food, drug and mass (minus Walmart). The drops reflect, in part, the impact earlier this year of Food and Drug Administration safety concerns around two top-selling diet-aid brands, Alli and Hydroxycut, based on 32 reports of serious adverse events (worldwide) and 23 adverse events (domestic), respectively, over an approximate 10-year span in each case.
Of course, the other piece of the puzzle around declining diet-aid sales is the time of the year—diet aids sell best the few weeks after many people have resolved to lose weight in the new year and the few weeks before bikini season.
With a more aggressive FDA in regard to this category, there is the possibility that testimonial advertising—those ads that feature before-and-after photos of a person who used the product and realized significant results—may be in jeopardy. The Federal Trade Commission currently is considering a change from a “results not typical” blanket disclaimer accompanying those before-and-after shots with a disclaimer of what the typical results actually are.
Top-selling diet aids on the upswing| BRAND | SALES* | % CHG |
| SlimQuick | $20.8 | 11.2% |
| MegaT | 12.4 | 36.9 |
| Xenadrine RFA1 | 9.1 | NA |
| Applid Nutrition | 7.6 | 29.0 |
| Metabolife Ultraweight | 5.0 | 43.9 |
| OVERALL | $294.4 | -13.2% |
According to some in the industry, those diet-aid marketers who hang their advertising campaigns on those before-and-after testimonials will be most impacted by any FTC change in testimonial advertising. And that’s not altogether bad news, as several not-available-at-retail weight-loss products use those before-and-after testimonials to insinuate unrealistic weight-loss results.
“[An] advertiser needs to be able to substantiate any broad, sweeping claims that they make as far as how the product works,” Duffy MacKay, VP scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, told Drug Store News earlier this year. “We’re all for getting those outliers that make us all look ridiculous out of the picture,” he said, though eliminating testimonials may not be the answer. “What the FTC needs is stronger regulatory activity, not new guidelines.”