*Results Not Typical

photo credit.

I know whenever I see a diet or fitness ad on TV to look for the fine print--those ten lines in five-point font that say, "Results not typical. Patients lost an average of 5 lbs over three months with diet and exercise."

But that's how those diet and fitness ads work--they show a beautiful, fit man or woman who had outrageous success with the product and present them as the norm, while the fine print tells us otherwise.

Well, those ads are about to become a thing of the past.

According to the new Federal Trade Commission guidelines:

"...advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor." [words in bold by me.]

Basically, no more tanned-and-toned beauties touting products that made them "lose four dress sizes in four weeks," or whatever. Companies will now have to include what are "typical" results that consumers may see when using a product; hopefully this will lead to more realistic weight loss goals.

The new guidelines also state that celebrities and bloggers will be required to reveal any compensation they may be receiving for making a product endorsement.

The celebrity thing was probably a long time coming, since it's hard to turn on the TV and not see a glamorous celeb endorsing some new fitness craze, but the situation with blogger endorsements is relatively new.

Bloggers who run their own product review sites or fitness sites have been receiving samples, freebies, even money to give a good review. It can turn into a pretty sticky situation, since a lot of these blogs are in a friendly, word-of-mouth style and are easy to trust. Both professional and non-professional bloggers will face fines if they don't reveal any freebies or kickbacks they may be receiving.

For anyone who is interested, I read a really good/funny beauty blog called Apocalypstick Now and the blogger makes it clear that she only reviews stuff she buys herself.

Hopefully this new FTC regulation will make the whole advertising industry more transparent which, in the case of the health and fitness industry, is totally vital. I look forward to seeing this plan put into action (it starts Dec. 1) and I'm eager to see what will come of it.