Milk Promoting Weight Loss Ad to be Ended

Through the complaint of a group of doctors, an ad campaign suggesting that milk can help people lose weight will be ended soon, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The “Milk Your Diet” ad campaign team still stood for their campaign because according to Susan Ruland, their spokeswoman, there’s enough scientific evidence demonstrating the connection between milk and weight loss.

However, The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine contended the weight loss claims were false and misleading. The group, in a 2005 petition, asked the commission to order a halt to the dairy advertisements.

The agency did not take that step, but said in a letter to the committee that the groups behind the ads planned to end them.

“It is obvious that the industry did not have a leg to stand on,” Neal Barnard, president of the Washington-based doctors committee, said today. His group advocates a vegan diet, which typically includes no animal products.

The two marketing campaigns at issue involve the “Milk your diet. Lose Weight!” ads on television, the Internet and in magazines, and the “3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight” ads, which are now mostly Web-based.

The FTC, in a letter May 3 to the committee, said the agency met with Agriculture Department officials and representatives for the two campaigns, which decided “to discontinue all advertising and other marketing activities involving weight loss claims until further research provides stronger, more conclusive evidence.”

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[image from kasth]