England’s Top Doctor Wants to Ban Celebrity Ads Promoting Diet Pills and Products

BuzzJuly 1, 2019

The rise of celebrities endorsing diet pills as well as detox teas that promote quick weight loss on social media channels brought the attention of England’s top doctor. Now, he wants these celebrities ads to get banned for imposing danger to the public’s health and well-being.

The Woes

According to NHS medical doctor, Prof Stephen Powis, these weight-loss products endorsed by celebrities cause damaging effects not only in the public’s physical health but also in their mental health. According to him, these quick-fix weight loss pills may produce desirable results for a few months, but its benefit outweighs the side effects they’ll get in the long run.

He wants the government to ban these celebrity ads on social media to put an end to these weight loss fad.

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Powis says the public should be wary with products offering “astounding results” in a short period since it’s most likely a fad.

He also urges these celebrities to be more responsible when it comes to entering endorsement deals. Furthermore, Powis adds these careless endorsements made by stars not only endanger their fans’ health, but they’ll also be disappointing them by endorsing ineffective products.

Worse, most of these quick-fix weight loss products are harmful. Powis notes how these celebrities pay thousands of dollars to hire dedicated nutritionists and trainers to monitor their health. So they should know first-hand weight loss can’t be one overnight or by just relying on pills and teas.

The Negative Effects of Influence

The renowned doctor noticed how these companies reach out to social media influencers and engage them in advertising their products since they hold power to influence the younger sector. It prompted Powis to urge large social media companies to monitor their platform and ban these manufacturers and weight loss companies who produce fake products which pose a health risk to young people who they usually target in their campaign.

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Dr. Murdoch says celebrities and companies should be mindful of the power they hold in influencing the younger people in making right or wrong decisions.

It seems Powis isn’t the only one expressing his concerns on these endorsements on weight loss fads. The Competition and Markets Authority reveals they’re cracking down celebrities who fail to put a disclaimer on their posts stating the advertisers or sponsors paid them for endorsing such products. Meanwhile, the mental health director of NHS, Clair Murdoch says it’s not their intention to suppress any businesses with their actions.

Examples of Influential Marketing

Dr. Powis cited examples from celebrity endorsements that caught his attention. One of them was the renowned Hollywood celebrity, Kim Kardashian West who posted a picture of her promoting protein shakes as replacement meals. Having a staggering 126 million followers and fanbase on her Instagram account makes it easier for her to promote the product.

Before her shake endorsement, Kim Kardashian was criticized before for lollypops that claim to have appetite-suppressing abilities. Meanwhile, both Katie Price (who has over 1.9 million followers) and Vikki Patterson (with an astounding 4.2 million followers) endorsed an appetite suppressant on their respective pages. The latter also appeared in the hit TV shows Loose Women and Geordie Shore to promote the same products.

Body Positivity

Despite the rise of celebrities endorsing weight-loss products, Powis says there are still celebrities who prefer the natural and healthy method. For example, the renowned actress Jameela Jamil criticized Kim Kardashian for promoting these meal-replacement shakes and for being a “toxic influence” to the youth. Jamil strives on helping body positivity as she launched I Weigh campaign on Instagram and Twitter.

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Jamil’s goal is to encourage women to measure their worth more than their appearance, body, and weight.

Meanwhile, the National Citizens Service‘s research reveals at least one in every four young people claim they value their appearance more than anything else. It also shows about 50% of teenage girls bear the pressure to diet to keep their thin physique while 1/3 of the boys get pressured into going to the gym to develop muscles.

Powis says this pressure prompted the youth to take substances like diet pills or hormone-induced products to promote muscles. The danger and risk are high especially if they started taking medicines and self-administer it without receiving proper support and medical care.