'Slim Coffee' Promoters Settle False Advertising Charges

Weight-loss claims bogus, feds charged

January 16, 2008

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The marketers of “Slim Coffee” -- an instant coffee product purportedly containing hoodia -- have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that their advertising falsely claimed that their product would enable its users to lose significant amounts of weight without diet or exercise.

Diet Coffee, Inc. and its principals, David Stocknoff and David Attarian, based in New York City, ran television ads claiming that drinking Slim Coffee had been “clinically proven” to cause weight loss of “up to 5 pounds a week and up to 20 pounds a month.”

“There’s no need to change your eating habits or what you eat,” the ads claimed. “Just replace your coffee with Slim Coffee and you will start to see results. It’s that easy and all-natural.”

According to a complaint filed by the FTC in federal district court, the weight-loss claims for Slim Coffee were false and unsupported by any reliable scientific studies, in violation of the FTC Act.

Among other things, the FTC’s complaint alleged that neither Slim Coffee nor any of its individual ingredients, including hoodia, would enable its users to lose as much as two to five pounds per week, without reducing caloric intake or increasing physical activity.

Under the proposed settlement, Diet Coffee, Inc. and its principals are prohibited from claiming that any product enables users to lose substantial weight without reducing caloric intake or increasing physical activity.

The order also prohibits them from representing that any product or service causes weight loss, causes users to lose any specified amount of weight, reduces or eliminates fat, reduces or curbs appetite, or increases metabolism, or making any other health-related benefit or efficacy representation unless it is true, not misleading, and substantiated by reliable scientific evidence.

In addition, they are prohibited from misrepresenting the existence, contents, validity, results, conclusions, or interpretations of any test or study concerning such products.

Slim Coffee was advertised on the Internet, radio, and television, including on Oxygen, Fox Reality Channel, A&E Television, The CW, WE, and Bravo. Ads also have appeared in magazines and Sunday newspaper supplements, including SmartSource by News America Marketing FSI, Inc.

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