SlimAmerica Super Formula weight loss products target of FTC suit.

SLIMAMERICA ORDERED TO HALT BUSINESS: SUPER FORMULA WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCTS advertising claims are "false and misleading," the Federal Trade Commission charged Feb. 3 after filing suit Jan. 24 against SlimAmerica. A temporary restraining order issued by a Miami federal court also freezes the assets of the Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based company. FTC's request to permanently enjoin SlimAmerica is scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 10.

Claims that FTC alleges are "false and misleading" include statements that Super Formula will "BLAST UP TO 49 POUNDS OFF YOU IN ONLY 29 DAYS," and that it "obliterates up to five inches from your waistline...and zaps three inches from your thighs." Furthermore, FTC said, the company claims these results can be accomplished without diet or exercise: "No discipline! No soul searching will power! No starvation! No back-breaking exercise! Eat your favorite foods!" the agency cited as ad claims.

Ads appeared from Sept. 29, 1995 through January 1997 in "at least 32 newspapers and four magazines," the lawsuit states. The suit includes as attachments ads appearing in the Rocky Mountain News and Ladies Home Journal as being "illustrative of the numerous other ads which defendants have disseminated through the print media." SlimAmerica also has a Web site, FTC noted.

Slim America ads claim that the Super Formula program is backed up by "dramatic proof from leading U.S. medical schools" and is endorsed, FTC said, by "an individual identified as `Howard Retzer, MD,' who claims to have reviewed studies of [Super Formula] products and concluded that they support the claims in the ad." The ads identify Retzer variously as the "Past President of the American College of Nutrition," the past president of "The American College of Endocrinology and Nutrition" and the past president of "The Research Institute of Metabolism and Nutrition."

However, FTC said, "no individual named Howard Retzer has ever been a member, let alone a president, of the American Council of Nutrition." Furthermore, there are no "bona fide professional organizations known as The American College of Endocrinology and Nutrition [or] The Research Institute of Metabolism and Nutrition." Contrary to what is claimed in SlimAmerica ads, "defendant's claims have not been scientifically validated in credible clinical studies," FTC concluded.

The Super Formula program consists of three different "weight loss weapons," the suit states: the Slim Again pill contains chromium picolinate and hydroxycitrate; Absorbit-ALL contains chitin; and Absorbit-ALL PLUS contains konjac glucomannan.

A 30-day supply of the "program" sells for $49.95, 60 days' worth is $89.95 and a 90-day supply goes for $129.95, FTC's suit states. When a customer calls the company's toll-free number, salespersons would reiterate claims made in the advertising, FTC said, and offer a "free round-trip vacation for two to the Bahamas" if the customer purchased an additional 30-day supply of the products.

Upon review of the company's ads for the Super Formula program, the National Advertising Review Board recommended their discontinuance ("The Tan Sheet" Oct. 14, 1996, In Brief). SlimAmerica requested review by NARB after the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus found the claims to be unsubstantiated ("The Tan Sheet" Aug. 12, 1996, p. 10).

In addition to the temporary restraining order, the FTC seeks: a permanent enjoinder from deceptive acts on the part of SlimAmerica; an award of "equitable relief such as the court finds necessary to require defendants to disgorge their unlawful gains" from sale of Super Formula, estimated by the FTC to be between $5.3 mil. and $17.7 mil., and to provide "restitution for defendants' customers, including but not limited to refunds of money"; and an award to the FTC for costs of the lawsuit.

Listed as co-defendants in the suit are Frank Sarcone (aka Frank Sarcona), the director, chairman, president and secretary of the company, and Robert Wyman, the product supervisor "and/or advertising and marketing director" of the company.