ASA gets heavy with LighterLife

LighterLife, the weight loss company which specialises in Little Britain-style “dust”, has been battered by the Advertising Standards Authority for a campaign which suggested the brand could trigger rapid weight loss.
Featuring Loose Women star and actress Denise Welch, the social media campaign showed “before and after” images of the Welch along with the text, “Denise lost 2st in just 2 months”. Other “before and after” shots showed someone called “Janet Nadolski” who had lost three stone nine pounds in five and a half months.
While the ASA accepted Welch was fat when she kicked off her weight loss programme, and that her waist measurement was very high, the ad code maintains that for people “normally overweight” weight loss over 2lb a week is unlikely to be compatible with good medical and nutritional practice. And LighterLife could not provide evidence the rate Welch lost weight was compatible with the rules.
Nadolski was obese when she started her programme but because it was not always carried out under supervision of a GP, the ASA found her images of also breached the code for offering an obesity treatment that was not always used under suitably qualified supervision.
Banning the campaign, the watchdog warned LighterLife about its future advertising and told it to ensure its weight loss claims were compatible with good medical and nutritional practice.

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