A Very Skinny Scam

Out of the ultra-slenderness in 2000s media and the prevalent cultural fixation on extreme thinness, a “super supplement” was born. In 2002 the world was introduced to the supplement Hydroxycut. The supplement is marketed as a weight-loss supplement, but quickly became known as one of the biggest scams of the early 2000s. The trouble begins for Hydroxycut in 2003 when people started dying. At this time the formula for the supplement contained the ingredient ephedra. Ephedra-related adverse reactions, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000, found a number of cases of sudden cardiac death or severe disability, many of which occurred in young adults using supplements that contained the chemical in proper doses. In the span of a year, Hydroxycut was facing upwards of 80 lawsuits for causing seizures, heart attacks, and even deaths.

The lawsuits went so far that the Missouri Attorney General, Jay Nixon, filed a lawsuit stating that its marketing claims that Hydroxycut was "clinically proven" to be a "fat-burner" were false. MuscleTech paid $100,000 to settle the case and agreed to cease marketing ephedra-containing products in Missouri and to refund customers' money. However, MuscleTech did not stop nationally producing the product.

Flashforward to May 2017, almost 15 years later, Hydroxycut gets sued AGAIN for false advertising. The plaintiffs filed alleging that MuscleTech falsely markets Hydroxycut brand weight-loss products as “scientifically researched” and “clinically proven to promote weight loss” when, according to plaintiffs, the key ingredients do not promote weight loss. A judge ultimately moved for settlement but agreed that Hydroxycut was neither “scientifically researched” nor “clinically proven to promote weight loss”.

Now twice it has been proven in court that Hydroxycut is not only not the product it claims to be, but it can also be dangerous to its consumers. However, the official website of the product states that “Hydroxycut is safe to use by healthy adults when used as directed on the label.” and that “The key ingredient in Hydroxycut is backed by two scientific studies that support its effectiveness.”

I want to know how many lawsuits it's gonna take before the FCC drops the hammer for not dropping the weight with Hydroxycut.