A national advertising campaign that connects dairy products with weight loss will be withdrawn as research does not support the claim, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine insisted that the weight loss claims were false and misleading. The group, in a 2005 petition, had asked the commission to order a ban to the dairy advertisements.
The two marketing campaigns involved with the issue are the ‘Milk your diet. Lose Weight!” ads on television, Internet and in magazines, and the ‘3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight’ advertisements, which are mainly Web-based. The advertisements, formulated by the promotional division of the dairy industry and watched over by the Agriculture Department, feature slogans like ‘Milk your diet. Lose weight!’ and suggest that three servings of dairy products a day can help people be slim.
The affirmation that there is a linkage between weight loss and dairy consumption has long been challenged by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy and research group that promotes a diet free of animal products.
On the other hand, Susan Ruland, a spokeswoman for the ‘Milk your Diet’ campaign, has said there was nothing misleading about the ads. However, she added that the board is planning to phase out the milk ads and focus the campaign instead on how dairy can help promote a healthy diet.
